This is where cold hard facts give way to the hottest of takes, mostly mine I suppose. I’m the editor, Marshall Jones.

Want to include yours? Listen, this isn’t the comment section, this isn’t social media. Discussion and debate requires context and a wee bit of bravery — we need your name and where you’re writing from. Include it in your account or email me anytime.

I’ve been struggling to understand my own feelings about wildfire season, smoke and threat of evacuation.

In other words, summer.

I thought I had a unique perspective as a reporter. I have covered threatening wildfires since 2003, been evacuated several times. I thought I earned that anxiety by staring at it every day.

I haven’t planned a summer vacation for at least 10 years because I know where I will be: At home, covering fires, bags packed, ready to evacuate.

I thought perhaps it was also a product of where I live, in the BC Interior, that something different was happening here. Of course, that’s not the case.

This story made me realize my perspective is not unique. A lot of us feel this way.

The summers of my youth are not the same. They have been disrupted by climate change and I don’t think they are coming back.

There’s no denying this anymore, it’s expectation. No more dissonance. No more hoping things will change next year and I take some peace with that.

The question and challenge is what we do about it. Can we mitigate, manage, prepare and adapt?

A few years ago, we got so fed up with covering fire season as an emergency, my team and I resolved to keep writing throughout the year about fire mitigation and off season efforts around the province to…

Lol. Once the fires are out, no one cares. Cared? Past tense? Maybe it’s different this year. Maybe the ledger has finally turned on the confidence of farmers and wineries and orchards and hotels and tourism. Maybe the losses outpacing what we spend on fire mitigation while finally prompt adaptation.

One can only hope. Folks, I know this is kind of depressing but we are, indeed, in this together and we can do more than we think. How are you feeling? Want to talk about it? Email me at mjones@infonews.ca.

Marshall Jones

Managing Editor

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