Current Research
Climate Adaptation and its Injustices in British Columbia’s unprecedented Forest Fires, Wildfire Smoke, and Heatwave Seasons (2017, 2018, 2021)
Over the last decades, many cities such as Vancouver have been championed as leaders of sustainability and resilience on the international scene. However, the growing scale and recurrence of climate hazards have shown many of the limits that cities, towns, and regions can encounter. The wildfire seasons of 2017, 2018, and 2021 have been striking reminders of the discrepant and sometimes unexpected vulnerabilities that will become the new normal in the face of fire hazards, evacuations, hazardous air quality and extreme heat.
In this research, my purpose is to trace the implementation challenges of municipal climate efforts in the face of the wildfire and heat wave seasons of 2017, 2018, and 2021 in British Columbia by contrasting Vancouver’s mitigation and adaptation efforts to one of BC’s most affected regions: the Cariboo region.
To do so, I investigate discourses from two separate groups: i) urban and regional planners, elected officials, and policy specialists, and ii) residents from local communities who are not directly implicated in the business of climate mitigation and adaptation per se.
Through this work, my aim is to provide an in-depth and comprehensive account of how the climate policy field operates between planning bodies, governments, and local communities. Another key objective is to trace the emerging injustices that many communities face. This is essential to inform the public debate, the media, governmental officials, and all stakeholders of the challenges of adapting to extreme Summers in British Columbia.