Folks living in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, Canada, are not having a good time.
The last I checked, the Northwest Territories capital was being evacuated. Understandably, since there’s less than a mile of open water between Yellowknife and one of Canada’s wildfires.
Since Yellowknife has been in the news, and I knew next to nothing about the place, I did a little checking and took a quick virtual trip to the Northwest Territories’ capital.
I’ll be talking about something else for next week’s post, so what I found gets a once-over-lightly treatment. As the AI Assistant I’ve started consulting pointed out:
The post discusses the Canadian wildfires and their impact on Yellowknife, as well as the conspiracy theories surrounding them. The author also mentions climate change and the need for a better understanding of Earth’s climate before implementing drastic measures. The post ends with a description of a unique house in Yellowknife.
Overall, the post provides relevant information and personal insights. However, here are a few actions that could enhance it:
1. Consider adding more details about the Canadian wildfires, such as the causes, extent, and efforts being made to contain them.
2. Back up statements about conspiracy theories with examples or references to provide a more balanced viewpoint.
3. Explore the potential long-term effects of climate change on the region and its residents.
4. Provide a conclusion or summary that ties the various elements of the post together.
These suggestions will help improve the depth and coherence of the content.
(Jetpack AI Assistant)
I think the suggestions made sense. Adopting them would “improve the depth and coherence of the content” — but I decided that I’m okay with a somewhat shallow and not quite coherent narrative. You have been warned. 😉
In the News
Glancing at the news, I see that Canada is ablaze, Maui’s a mess, and California is in peril. Oddly enough, though, California’s current looming doom is water, not fire.
- BBC News
- “Canada wildfires: British Columbia declares emergency as 15,000 homes told to evacuate” (August 19, 2023)
- “Hurricane Hilary heads for Mexico and California” (August 19, 2023)
- “Teacher saves former student from Maui wildfires” (August 19, 2023)
- “Yellowknife fires: Evacuees pack road and air routes ahead of noon deadline” (August 18, 2023)
- “Military airlifts hundreds to safety from fires in Northwest Territories” (August 15, 2023)
- “Canada wildfire season is now the worst on record” (June 5, 2023; updated June 29, 2023)
All of the above are serious matters. I’m a bit more aware of the Canadian wildfires, since my home is downwind of them.
As I’m writing this, Saturday afternoon, our weather problem is a heat advisory: but we’re expecting Canadian haze again this evening.
A quick check told me that the Canadian fires have the usual attendant wacky rumors. Seems that they’re some sort of plot, caused by space lasers, and that the haze we’ve been experiencing is ammonium nitrate.
But nobody, as far as I can tell, has made the obvious connection between space lasers and space aliens. Sitting on the front stoop today, I saw a little sort-of-round cloud, which I could claim was a camouflaged flying saucer.
Getting Slightly Serious About Silliness
I figure there’s a little truth — not the space aliens thing, that’s silly — to at least a few conspiracy theories bouncing around social media.
Of course politicos are using human suffering to get re-elected or push their pet projects. That’s what they do. But that doesn’t mean they’ve hired arsonists.
I also think that Canada, Maui and California are real places and that folks live there.
Granted, I’ve yet to run across a conspiracy theory buff who insists that, say, Massachusetts doesn’t exist, and that it’s really a movie set built by a clandestine movie studio in rural Texas. The Massachusetts Analog Deception “obviously” has been maintained to besmirch the Kennedy family’s good name.
And no, I do not believe that. Although with a little work, I could probably work in H. P. Lovecraft, the Great Old Ones and Apollo 13.
Moving along.
It’s my considered opinion that Earth’s climate has changed, is changing, and will continue changing.
We’ve almost certainly affected Earth’s climate by planting crops, raising livestock and — more recently — burning coal.
One reason I’m not demanding that the government outlaw electric toothbrushes, bioengineer non-gassy cows or otherwise “do something” —
Well, it’s because I think we can change Earth’s climate.
Knowing a great deal more than we do about what makes it work before fiddling with the controls seems prudent.
And that’s another topic.
Yellowknife, Northwest Territories: August 19, 2023
I don’t envy either the essential workers left behind, or the 17,500 or so Yellowknifers who evacuated the city.
Who were evacuated, actually. The powers that be gave an evacuation order. Which makes sense, since there’s not quite a mile of open water between the city and what Google Maps calls the Yellowknife Fire, one of the Southern Fort Smith Region wildfires.
Again, getting as many folks as possible out of the way of wildfires makes sense. I hope that folks in Yellowknife and elsewhere won’t lose more than they already have.
And that brings me to what got me started writing today.
Well, That’s Different: A Glass-Capped House on Niven Drive
I do my traveling with Google Maps and Google Street View these days.
Friday, when I had most of the week’s ‘Saturday post’ finished, I took a very quick virtual jaunt through Yellowknife.
Not all the way through. Northwest Territories’ capital is (normally) very roughly four and a third times the size of Sauk Centre. My town’s a bit more compact, though; and I’m drifting off-topic.
One of the places I saw was Niven Drive, between Niven Lake and Josephine Walcer Park.1 Enough name dropping.
Yellowknife’s Niven Drive looks like a pleasant neighborhood. A bit shy on large trees and brimming with new-looking houses. Both of which I figure are due to Yellowknife’s climate and history.
Niven Drive houses lack the mass-produced look of 1950s American housing developments, but they’re not all that different from what I see in Sauk Centre’s newer neighborhoods.
With one exception.
Someone on Niven Drive lives in a round house. Not a roundhouse. A house that’s round: very roughly 40 feet in diameter, I’d say.
What first caught my eye was its conical glass cupola. I don’t know if it’s the ceiling/roof of a sunroom, an atrium’s skylight, or something else.
Other houses on Niven Drive look fine, and are probably very nice places to live. When there isn’t a wildfire headed their way, anyway.
But that remarkable home with the glass cap? I like it. It’s got character. I hope that it — and, more importantly, whoever lives there — weathers the current troubles.
Now, the usual lists.
I see connections with this post, your experience may vary:
- “Central Minnesota ‘Unhealthy’ Air Quality and My Plans For Today“
(June 28, 2023) - “NASA, UAPs, UFOs and a Bart Simpson Balloon“
(June 17, 2023) - “Climate, Neighbors, Bogeymen and Responsibility“
(November 5, 2022) - “Pax Romana: Augustus to Nero“
(October 29, 2022) - “Power and Climate“
(July 1, 2018)
- Wikipedia
- Yellowknife, NT, Canada
Google Maps
