John Vaillant Presentation at the 2024 Conservancy Speaker Series
The Conservancy’s Speaker Series kicked off on Friday, September 13th with John Vaillant, a well-known and accomplished writer of historical non-fiction and fiction, and the presentation focused on his 2023 book “Fire Weather, The Making of a Beast.” Before the talk, I asked him about the variety of subtitles, which include “A True Story from a Hotter World” and “On the Front Lines of a Burning World.” The explanation is that they reflect the emphasis the publisher wanted for different markets in the US, Canada, and beyond.
One concept John described for our audience was the notion of clima incognita, which emphasizes that there is no evidence current changes in our climate represent a new regime. Transformations in the world’s climate systems might continue at the same rate – but are just as likely to accelerate. There is currently no way of predicting this; hence “incognita.” He also put forward the idea of our earth suffering from a fever, which is anything but a stable and predictable state! The Fort McMurray fire in 2016 dramatically demonstrated the degree to which a large fire increases the combustibility of everything in its path. This in turn, increases all risks we face at the Wildland Urban Interface (W.U.I.).
John emphasized that changes in our environment are moving faster than human technology, and that we might apply an oft-quoted description of bankruptcy to the climate crisis: “It happens gradually, then suddenly.” Viewing the accumulation of CO2 in our atmosphere as debt, we can then see the resulting heat as interest on that debt. The American futurist and writer on sustainability, Alex Steffen, uses the term “predatory delay” for the failure of various sectors of the world economy to respond to climate change. While John Vaillant cites this as an accurate and provocative description of the situation, he is also seeing real progress. The rapid transformation of energy systems and related shifts in the underlying economics are driving change, while at the same time ensuring the new regime is durable. Although damage from climate change is happening, and this change is accelerating, a dramatic energy transition is underway in many parts of the world, including the State of Texas of all places!
During the Q & A, our audience asked about the viability of electric vehicles and carbon pricing. John answered that both are part of a very wide-ranging set of solutions which play a part in what is turning out to be a bumpy road to the future. When asked about the number of fires we will need to endure before human society sees climate change as a serious threat, he noted that attitudes are changing as people experience these traumatic events directly. When asked whether individual actions matter more than government and corporate responses John emphasized that all actions matter at every scale.
The last image in the presentation was an illustration of revirescence, or “growing fresh, young again.” It showed tulips growing out of the ashes and bare soil in Fort McMurray, emerging from bulbs that survived the fire. This compelling photo provides a potent image of how nature can recover from environmental damage and destruction.
Fire Weather won the Baillie Gifford Prize and Canada’s Shaughnessy Cohen Prize and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award. It offers important lessons about the challenges humanity faces in 2024. We are so happy that John Vaillant made the effort to work this visit to Mayne Island into his schedule!
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