Ft. McMurray

Meanwhile, back to reality...

A helicopter flies past a wildfire in Fort McMurray, Alberta, on Wednesday. The blaze has spread through an area covering more than three hundred square miles.CREDIT

PHOTOGRAPH BY JASON FRANSON / THE CANADIAN PRESS / AP

Wildfires are burning all across Alberta, Canada. The one torching Ft. McMurray forced the evacuation of the entire town of 80,000. Some of these folks will be sleeping on cots for weeks.

If you need to be reminded about how good you probably have it, take a look at this video.

The fires have shut the oil sands production north of Ft. McMurray. I would LOVE to shut down these horribly polluting, resource-depleting plants, but not this way. About the only good coming from there is they are housing thousands of refugees from Ft. McMurray. 

Which came first, climate change or record-breaking wildfires?

It's rather frustrating trying to keep updated on the fire situation in Canada. The U.S. press is way beyond pathetic these days. It's Trump, Trump, Trump all the time. Or celebrity gossip. Or pundits sitting around pontificating. You have to turn to the international press to get any good coverage of the wildfires. The BBC is usually reliable, and of course the CBC is all over it. 

CNN International is far superior to the regular CNN. Many can only get CNN-I online.