Experienced legal leader ✦ Enthusiastic collaborator ✦ Passionate about sustainability, justice & belonging
🔥 Several months ago, I read John Vaillant’s 2023 book “Fire Weather,” and I haven’t been able to get it out of my mind. Have you read it? 🔥 As a California resident, extreme wildfire conditions have become a reality that has affected every norm of what used to be pretty predictable summers. In 2020 and 2021, 1.8M and 1.0M hectares burned, respectively (compared to an average of 300k hectares in the previous 20 years). Like many Northern Californians, rather than A/C, our house had windows to open – but we couldn’t open them with the air full of smoke. And we couldn’t close them with heat soaring into the 90s. (Which does count as “soaring” for Northern California, if not for my native state of Texas!) All of this made “Fire Weather” feel very relevant, immediate, and urgent. In the book, Vaillant walks the reader through the terrifying story of a monstrous wildfire that, in the spring of 2016, incinerated Fort McMurray, a small city in central Canada’s boreal forest. The book tracks the minute-by-minute impact on firefighters, residents, and local authorities running from and battling a wildfire complex so intense that it generated its own weather systems, complete with hurricane-force winds and bolts of lightning. When he isn’t recounting the painful story of Fort McMurray, Vaillant explores the causes and consequences of climate change, with special attention on the extraction of bitumen, the ubiquity of petroleum products in every surface of our homes, and the concerted and intentional effort that has gone into drafting regulations and legislation to protect the industry and promote its proliferation. This was a book that has stuck with me over the intervening months, and will probably stay with me for a long time to come. 🔥 I’d love to hear your thoughts, if you’ve read it. And I heartily recommend it to anyone who hasn’t – but be warned, it’s powerful and you will never look at your couch the same way again. 🔥 #Jospersonalbookclub #fireweather #johnvaillant #reading #neverstoplearning
Recommend you read Vaillant’s “The Tiger”. It’s unforgettable. I will read “Fire Weather” before the year is over.
AI Contracting for Large Enterprises @ Ironclad
1moThanks for sharing Jo! Just added to my list at the library. I will never forget the smoke coming through those years, especially mid-September 2020. It was MISERABLE in my new sunny, top floor apartment (which felt like an awesome idea initially, but then like a prison during the fires). I remember sweat rolling down my body as I was trying to work on my laptop (offices closed!), trapped in 600 sq ft with no airflow. So disheartening to see how many fires we’re seeing across North America, and so close to home.