Thread by @ThierryAaron

1/ I'm horrified by the news of mass evacuations from #Yellowknife due to the #wildfires🔥

I used conduct research in the area & it was after a talk with a volunteer firefighter there that I decided to leave ecological science & focus on #climate action.

Here's why🧵

https://twitter.com/nytimes/status/1692114089030422556

2/ The #Arctic is warming about 3X faster than the rest of the globe as a result of #GlobalWarming from burning fossil fuels.

As a result we're seeing major changes in Northern ecosystems - including a dramatic increase in #wildfire🔥 :

https://twitter.com/ThierryAaron/status/1655480625489477633

3/ I was part of a team that was studying the effect that increased #wildfires were having on the rate of permafrost thaw & what this means for the carbon cycle.

We wanted to know whether this leads to feedbacks that amplify the warming we've already caused.

4/ The fires burned off the moss layers which acts to insulate the soil during the summer months.

Meaning that in burned areas the permafrost thaws faster.

5/ During my time up there I had the chance to speak with a volunteer firefighter, who came from a local first nations community, about the changes taking place in the North.

He and his team had been battling blazes for weeks & he was exhausted.

6/ He told me that fires like this never used to happen, when he was younger he'd maybe have been called up a few days a year.

As we talked he explained how dramatically the landscape had changed...

7/ How the smoke from the fires was causing his family to become sick.

How houses built on permafrost were collapsing.

How it was becoming too risky to go ice fishing in many months as the lake ice was becoming too thin.

How traditional ways of life were becoming impossible

8/

What he said haunted me.

It was clear to both of us that this was only going to get worse.

And that what was happening in the North was a warning for what was to come for the rest of the world.

9/ Later that summer the air quality became so bad around Yellowknife that my colleagues couldn't remain in the field.

They had to stay indoors for a week with the windows closed!

cbc.ca/news/canada/no…

10/ I later watched a @TEDTalks by @courtghoward a doctor from Yellowknife & an expert on the devastating links between #climate & #health.

Dr. Howard's family are among those currently evacuated. My heart goes out to them & all those affected.
ted.com/talks/courtney…

11/ When I returned to the UK I found myself changed by what the firefighter had told me.

I knew that it was no longer possible for me to simply conduct ecological research, & so I resolved to instead focus my energies into trying to push for political action

12/ As I look at news about todays evacuation, I'm thinking of that firefighter 🚒

The blazes we're seeing are 'unprecedented'.

As are so many of the impacts across the globe this year, but how long before yet another record is set?

https://twitter.com/queenofpeat/status/1692197678745256245

13/ I look at the graphs of the area burned by this year's wildfires, I'm filled with dread.

'Off the scale' doesn't do it justice...

14/ And I wonder how close the Boreal forest is to a tipping point?

Will this disaster finally spur us to action?

Will Canada shut down the tar-sands?

Will they pull the plug on the #Transmountain pipeline?

I truly hope so!

news.mongabay.com/2015/11/worlds…

15/ Please help those affected by this disaster if you are able.

And please, please, join or support the climate movement in any way you can 🙏

/End

https://twitter.com/forestecogrp/status/1691805208949477539