AdventuresNW
When I heard about Jasper burning, I wept.
This little town, long a venerable outpost in the Canadian Rockies, is (was) one of my favorite places in the world. Located way up at the northern terminus of the world-renowned Icefields Parkway, Jasper was a special place, a throwback to the days of old-fashioned mountain civility, embodying elegant beauty and inspiring communion with nature. A genteel and civilized place, Jasper was a destination that attracted venturesome folks with an eye for natural beauty and a taste for the wilderness.
Jasper was evacuated on July 23 this year as a galloping wall of flame 300 feet high roared across the tinder-dry forests of the Rockies. One of more than 125 wildfires burning simultaneously in Alberta, the fire has now consumed more than 150 square miles of Jasper National Park. The day it started was the hottest day ever recorded on Earth.
I first visited Jasper in 1978 as a roving college student, part of a 12,000-mile road trip during a long, enlightening summer vacation from school in New Jersey. It was a golden and carefree time, where the route and schedule were mostly dictated by happenstance and good fortune.
Traveling in a ’76 Toyota Corolla with two friends, the tiny car packed with camping gear and musical instruments, I wandered across the western US. We eventually found ourselves in the Canadian Rockies, a place I knew I had to go on this meandering journey.
The inspiration was provided by a postcard. The previous summer, on a break from college, I took a miserable job at the warehouse of a hardware distributor in the bowels of New Jersey. A cadre of middle-aged women were ‘order pickers’ who pushed picking carts up and down the aisles to fill orders. They’d all been there a long time and were clearly half-crazy from the experience. To brighten their dreary days, they covered their carts with taped-on pictures of family, pets, flowers…and postcards.
One particular postcard on one particular cart caught my eye: a picture of a brilliant turquoise lake surrounded by the most beautiful mountains I had ever seen. I was drawn to it, a flicker of awe-inspiring beauty in the gloom of the warehouse. It was taped to the cart with packing tape, but one day, when no one was around, I furtively removed the card with a box cutter to see the back and learn the location of this jaw-dropping place: Maligne Lake in Jasper National Park.
Six weeks into my road trip that first visit to Jasper was like a dream. I saw the Northern Lights for the first time (on the fourth of July, no less). I saw my first moose and grizzly bear. We pulled into the town of Jasper at dusk, and I can still remember the glow of window light as the surrounding mountains faded into the night.
The next day, we met some girls who worked for the park and smuggled us into the employee dormitory so we could take long-overdue showers. We bought warm croissants at the Jasper Bakery and hung out on the vast lawn of the Jasper Park Information Center, a beautiful building made of stone and the source of backpacking permits. We relaxed on the grass and played guitars, making music with fellow travelers. Such inspiring bonhomie!
I fell in love with Jasper that morning.
Since then, I’ve returned to this beautiful area too many times to count, accompanied by various friends, my family, and my kids when they were little. I’ve backpacked into Tonquin Valley, hiked in wonderment through the Valley of a Thousand Falls to Berg Lake, and climbed to the ice and snow of Snowbird Pass. I’ve spent many happy hours wandering in (and above) Cavell Meadows, captivated by the humbling visage of Mt. Edith Cavell, exploring the Opal Hills, and swimming in Pyramid Lake. And yes, spent some glorious days and nights canoeing on Maligne Lake.
But I always made time to hang out on that lawn beside the Info Center, basking in the magical energy of happy travelers, their eyes aglow with the spirit of adventure and filled with a profound sense of belonging.
Over the course of a lifetime, one eventually gets used to how people come and go, part of the ephemeral nature of our lives on this spinning planet. But we think of the places we’ve been—places we’ve formed attachments to—in a more grounded, eternal way. Sure, we expect them to change over time. But when a special place like Jasper is virtually erased, a victim of climate change, it gives one pause.
Climate Change
As our planet continues to grow hotter as a result of climate change, it is easy to give in to the barrage of negative information that bombards us. But if despair draws us in, we can become passive, losing hope. And then become part of the problem.
According to Amy Harder, executive editor of Cipher (an organization dedicated to combating climate change and transforming our global energy systems), the news is not all bad. For example, she points out that before the Paris Climate Agreement was signed in 2015, we were facing a projected median temperature increase of 3.7 degrees Celsius by the end of the century. Since then, that projection has fallen to 2.7 degrees Celsius due to global efforts to reduce emissions. This is still unacceptable, but it speaks to the fact that progress is being made.
And according to the International Energy Agency, the number of electric cars sold worldwide in 2023 was one in five, a marked increase from 2020, when it was one in 25. The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 has played a major role in promoting this trend in the United States.
These positive developments get short shrift in the media in favor of stories of doom and gloom (and without a doubt, we’ll be facing some serious adaptations due to our historical ignoring of the problem). Still, there is no doubt that our relatively recent attention to these problems is having an impact in terms of reducing emissions and developing new frontiers in clean energy production.
Worldwide, per capita greenhouse gas emissions are falling, and clean energy sources such as wind and solar have become exponentially less expensive and will continue to do so. In the European Union, more electricity was produced by wind than natural gas last year, according to Cipher. The technologies that deliver clean energy are in their infancy, and the positive results of these technologies will grow in the years to come.
The task now is to keep this momentum going, both as individuals and as members of the collective. We must all act with a heightened awareness and understanding that our actions today are essential to eventually reversing these trends. We must insist that our elected leaders are determined to act in the planet’s best interests.
And we must not give in to despair and hopelessness.
More info on Cipher: www.ciphernews.com
