Webinar

Turning Down the Heat: Solutions in a New Era of Wildfire

July 2024

In this new era of mega fires, communities are not safe and the places we love are irreparably damaged. We can do better. We need governments and industry to take the climate crisis seriously and act accordingly. This includes doing everything they can to keep us and the places we love safe.

At the time of organizing this webinar, the town of Jasper, Alberta, and the surrounding irreplaceable ecosystems were devastated by fire. And in B.C. hundreds of wildfires are burning, some forcing people to flee their homes while thousands more are on alert and the danger of toxic smoke affects us all.

This is an all-hands-on-deck moment. Everything we love is at stake.

We all deserve safety and clean air. This webinar is about acknowledging the danger of the moment we’re in and focusing on the climate action and forest stewardship solutions we need to be safer in this new era of fire.

Explore resources from the webinar

Learn more about cultural burning and prescribed fire.
Learn more about the Salish Firekeeper Society.
Purchase Meghan Fandrich’s outstanding book of poems, Burning Sage – Poems from the Lytton Fire.
Read Meghan Fandrich’s moving op-ed in the Vancouver Sun.
Purchase John Vaillant’s Pulitzer-nominated book Fire Weather: The Making of a Beast.
Read John Vaillant’s recent article in the Globe and Mail about Vancouver narrowly dodging a fire disaster.
Read Scott Rennick’s excellent article in Maclean’s Magazine.
Please consider making a donation to support our free webinars and to help protect the places we love. Even a gift as small as $10 can make a huge difference. Donate here.

Meet the Speakers

John Vaillant

John Vaillant is an author and freelance writer. His latest book ‘Fire Weather: A True Story from a Hotter World’ is the 2024 Pulitzer Prize Finalist in General Nonfiction. The book offers a stunning account of the rapidly changing relationship between climate, fossil fuels, fire and the future of humankind.

Joe Gilchrist

Joe Gilchrist is a former firefighter with the BC Wildfire Service, a Salish Fire Keeper and a leader in the practice of cultural burning. He is from the Skeetchestn Indian Band near Kamloops, B.C.

Meghan Fandrich

Meghan Fandrich is a self-described neurodivergent writer, editor, and parent whose cafe burned down in the Lytton fire. She is the author of Burning Sage: Poems from the Lytton fire.

Scott Rennick

Scott Rennick is a Wildfire Officer based in Vanderhoof, overseeing 6.1 million hectares of forest and the former incident commander in charge of the Lytton area.