Parks & Urbanization
September 11, 2024 By: Jordan W
Urbanization
https://www.cbc.ca/radio/quirks/overheated-cities-climate-change-1.7315436
According to this article, cities are up to 12 degrees warmer than rural areas because of heatsinks such as pavement and concrete and reduced air and water flow (Drost, 2024). Living in a small town, you forget about the big cities, but, even walking down a paved road, you can feel the heat radiating back towards you. As we face longer warming periods, or even extreme heat, like a “heat dome” cities need to become more resilient towards heat. I am so over folks saying that the planet isn’t warming, I think it is obvious at this point, and cities like Vancouver, which weren’t built for a particularly hot environment will need to adapt. Cities, or “heat islands” trap heat, among other things, like producing air-borne pollutants, and modifying their physical environments (Melosi, 1993). As our climate changes, we need to retrofit old buildings with energy-efficient equipment, like windows, and ensure new buildings and communities are designed with reduced absorption of heat in mind.
Reference:
Melosi, Martin V. “The Place of the City in Environmental History.” Environmental History Review 17, no. 1 (1993): 1–23. doi:10.2307/3984888.
Parks
This fire hit close to home because I had friends caught up in the quick, scary evacuation. Living in Northern British Columbia, preparing for wildfire evacuation has become a common reoccurring theme every spring. To think a heavily regulated and managed National Park, like Jasper, can become a wildfire trap is terrifying. Fire is a natural process, particularly for the Boreal Forest, but when we see the photos in the article of the campsite and town destruction, we are reminded that no matter how or where you build, whether a park or a town, fire is hard to control. Another thought comes to mind, as we develop these areas, particularly for tourism and financial gain, are we forgetting that we are in an environment that cannot be completely controlled and putting people in harms way? Although National Parks set out boundaries and practices that aim to preserve wildlife and habitat, there is a balance between conservation and consumerism (Cronin, 1995), inadvertently putting people, infrastructure, and the natural environment at risk.
Reference:
Cronon, William. “The Trouble with Wilderness; or, Getting Back to the Wrong Nature.” In Uncommon Ground: Rethinking the Human Place in Nature, 69–90. New York: W. W. Norton & Co., 1995.
I think it goes beyond the concept that the environment can not be completely controlled. I am not sure we can completely understand the complexity of the environment and its interdependencies. Steinberg mentioned that Pinchot wrote that fires were something humans could control. While I doubt that was ever true, I don’t think the consequences of suppressing fires for over a hundred years were considered beyond the economic benefits of increasing the availability of merchantable timber. The increased fuel-loading of the forest over time and climate change have created the consequences we see today in situations like Jasper. We must approach environmental decisions through the lens of the precautionary principle and an awareness of the limits of our knowledge.
Reference:
Steinberg, T. “Chapter 9: Conservation Reconsidered.” In Down to Earth: Nature’s Role in American History. 4th ed. New York: Oxford University Press, 2018.
As a previous resident of Jasper, I have thought a lot about the recent wildfire that destroyed the homes and livelihoods of many residents, some who are friends. I remember seeing archive photos of Jasper in the museum that looked very different from when I lived there, as the landscape had notably more grassland ecosystems. We know that First Nations intentionally lit fires and we know Parks Canada intentionally suppressed wildfires. Like Les pointed out, we cannot fully understand the complexities of these environmental interactions, but it is clear that humans have altered the natural environment. These anthropogenic impacts within Canada’s national parks, which many view as quintessential wilderness, support William Cronon’s theory that wilderness is an artificial construct.
Reference
Cronon, William. “The Trouble with Wilderness; or, Getting Back to the Wrong Nature.” In Uncommon Ground: Rethinking the Human Place in Nature, edited by William Cronon, 69–90. New York: W. W. Norton & Co., 1995.