The Fort McMurray Experience
The author apologizes for the several month delay in posting. First of all, the folks involved in Return to Athabasca diverted our efforts to put out a local voter guide for the 2021 election year.
In addition, I got engaged. :)
That said, here is the next installment in the pilgrimage; a day in Fort McMurray itself. The primary lesson of this part of the trip was one we had anticipated finding, and we were not surprised. We have seen the enemy, and it’s us. It’s home. It’s the culture we come from. We traveled 1,000 miles to get to the hotbed of the tar sands extraction, only to find a town that was virtually identical—recycling and bike lanes and all—to an average town in Washington State.
Yet, just as we compartmentalize ourselves from the fact that we put tar sands gasoline in our cars in Washington, the town of Fort McMurray, Alberta compartmentalizes itself to an extent from the fossil fuel extraction devastation just a few miles to the north of it, and very much separates itself mentally from the impacts to the local ecology, to the indigenous peoples, and to the climate.
After spending time at the town’s visitor center, Lou took Kyle and I into the tar sands for the first time (as we hadn’t previously had the opportunity during the Healing Gathering ceremonies at the Reclamation Loop). There, we explored a forest that had been planted on the soil essentially stripped from other extraction sites and planted, resulting in a well-meaning effort to get trees to try to survive in an artificial and toxic environment. This was “reclamation”.
The spring after we visited, the area experienced what can easily be called climate change related record high temperatures and drought. As a result, a terrible fire broke out, one which caused the evacuation of the entire city.
I remember watching videos of cars on roads I recognized from our pilgrimage, narrowly avoiding flames and falling trees and people struggled to flee.
Very large flames and heavy smoke surrounded congested Highway 63 South
Photo: DarrenRD / CC BY-SA 4.0
I especially remember watching the ARCGIS satellite infrared readouts showing the fire’s spread, watching it come closer and closer to Jim and Florence Woodward’s house, where we stayed. At one point, the heat of the fire washed over their property, and I feared the worst.
Fort McMurray fire from space. Photo: sjrankin / CC BY-NC 2.0
In the end, a family member let us know they were okay, and what’s more, the fire came within 3/4 of a mile of their property, but had spared it.
In our next video, we will get to an interview we’ve been waiting forever to bring to you. An interview with Jean L’Hommecourt at Fort McKay, which was the far point of our travels, and is a voice speaking from the very epicenter of the impacts of the tar sands.
In the meantime, here is “The Fort McMurray Experience”.
