By Doug Draper
So you say you don’t believe in the kind of radical climate change that can trigger record heat warnings and drought.
Open-air fires banned due to drought
Well, it doesn’t matter whether you think climate change or not. Niagara, Ontario and many other regions of eastern Canada and the United States are now experiencing record-setting heat waves, combined with smothering smog conditions and a lack of rain that is threatening to cause billions of dollars in crop damage, push up food prices for many months to come and turn our properties in to tinder boxes for any spark that comes along.
On that last score, the City of St. Catharines has now, in its words, “issued a ban on all open-air buring until further notice.”
“The recent hot and dry weather prompted the ban on all open-air burning, including fire pits, fire bowls, chimineas, fireworks and other types of outdoor burning,” said a media release circulated by the city this July 18. “ Open-air burning can quickly spread to nearby grass and plants and burn out of control due to extreme conditions.”
“Barbecues are still permitted under the ban, but Fire Services advise residents to exercise caution when cooking.”
The city’s media release concludes by warning that residents who do not comply with the fire ban will be charged and could face fines up to $50,000.
If want to keep spewing carbon emissions from gas and oil and coal into the atmosphere at the rate we are now, we might look forward to more bans and warnings like this.
Meanwhile, enjoy this ultra hot and dry summer, and let’s get ready to brace ourselves for the possible gale-force winds and flooding rains when the colder fronts sweep in.
(Niagara At Large invites you to share your views on this post below, remembering that NAL only posts comments from individuals who also share their first and last names.)
Niagara At Large 
I’m thinking that nobody is willing to bet a ten-spot that this type of weather has, never in the history of the world, happened before. I’m all for the ban at this time but to somehow link the reason for it to the ruination of the atmosphere is ridiculous and only an example of people using anything they can find to promote their own agenda.
LikeLike
The Corporate mindset is paradoxical in so much as the only true belief they and their sheep like apostles profess and adhere to is the bottom line on a profit and loss statement. They care not whether their actions will, if not curbed and corrected, someday in the rather near future pollute this planet so badly that it will be the end of mankind and of course the balance of the creatures that have not already succumbed to their greed driven policies of take, take, and me, me, me and to hell with the consequence.
A recent President of the U.S.A. scoffed at all the scientific data and the proponents of the data as fear mongering so I wonder how Texas is weathering the weather????
LikeLike
Regardless of the cause of “climate change”, it is important for all of us to conserve and preserve. Whether one believes climate change is anthropogenic or just a cyclical planetary phenomenon, we need to do our utmost to keep the air and water clean. I’m sure some recall the plague of smog in early 50’s London and the deaths it caused due to respiratory diseases. Those conditions were largely remedied so it CAN be done. Who among us can thrive with filthy air and fouled water? The inconvenience of not having a bon fire will be the least of our concerns. It is not just a matter of climate change but livability.Even those who refuse to believe in climate change as some kind of conspiracy (why someone would think it a conspiracy that benefits someone I cannot comprehend) is it not incumbent upon us all to keep our planet as pristine as possible? Simply observing satellite photos of the poles shows the alarming decreases in the polar ice caps. That is undeniable.
With the current dust bowl conditions in the midwestern breadbasket we will pay premium prices for food stuffs. Farm animals will likely be slaughtered due to lack of feed. Changing oceanic currents due to climate change are increasing the severity of storms and upsetting the balance of marine life which in turn will effect us all.
Anyone who has children or grandchildren would surely want a livable planet for them unless they are so selfish as not to care beyond their own comfort. Resources are finite. There is no spare earth in the trunk.
Regardless of our individual beliefs re the causes of our recent bizarre weather, we must do our utmost to minimize our abuse of the planet.
LikeLike