ericbkennedy.bsky.social
Associate Prof of Disaster & Emergency Management at York University. Trying to improve use of evidence, science, data, and wisdom in wildfire. Editor of Canadian Journal of Emergency Management.
62 posts
4,723 followers
132 following
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**Taps sign**
It's still 'during COVID'.
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USAID ?does/did? have a great wildfire program, but focused on other regions, not Canada. Canada/US partnerships are through other mechanisms (e.g., compacts, CIFFC, etc). Lots of tough questions to ask about how changes in US policy affect fire cooperation, but USAID impacts primarily elsewhere.
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Anyways, just wanted to highlight this article for doing a good job at presenting this. I think maybe @hspray.bsky.social is the journalist (maybe?) so kudos! And since CBC doesn't have a Bluesky presence, also want to highlight her good work to @hannahhoag.bsky.social and other awesome folks. (8/8)
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This matters because the public needs to critically evaluate different claims, like when a politician takes a shot by implying "the fires/outcomes are worse because they didn't call in the forces." That's often presented without context, so I'm really grateful it's contextualized here. (7/n)
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Maybe we as a society want to change that. Maybe we think the military should be in the business of firefighting (many in the Canadian Forces disagree, BTW!).
But, it doesn't serve robust debate when we perpetuate misunderstandings (e.g., soldiers can be dumped in as firefighters). (6/n)
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What this article does well is explain /why/ the military hasn't been called before diving into that debate: it's because the military has particular strengths (e.g., heavy lift aircraft for evacuations, able-bodied people for mop-up) and weaknesses (basically zero expert wildfire fighters). (5/n)
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But, when this is covered by journalists, it can often be treated as though it's a settled question: "well, we have a military that could help, and they haven't been called in, so why is that?"
The problem is it's not settled: whether the military would actually "help" is a debate, not a truth.
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This is actually quite a live debate in the emergency management world - lots of forums & publications debating it! People hold passionately different views (e.g., "the forces are well equipped with strong young people" vs "they lack training or expertise for this specific work"). (3/n)
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One trope is this: wildfires are bad, so we should call in the military!
You hear this a lot from different advocates, politicians, and community members. It's based on a broader assumption that the military is inherently and objectively a catch-all for any disaster response.
(2/n)
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You said you weren’t gonna let that happen! :p
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This is how I feel when I see folks saying “we should have a Canadian FEMA.”
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Wait are you here for iREC?? It would be absolutely delightful to finally get to meet you in person!
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One of the things I love about working on wildfire is the way to gives doors to talk about things that folks normally have walls up about otherwise. Air purifiers, masks, climate, etc…
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"Since 2020, there's been a small but significant part missing" - proceeds to not mention abandoning being a co-op.
Perhaps Canadian ownership is marginally better... but I kinda think they're missing what really matters :p
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Experiential learning, I guess?
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You should /not/ choose who to vote for based on whether you like snowmobiling or yoga, and apps that nudge people towards doing that are corrosive and dangerous for society.
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But, holy jumping. While I get what Leger is trying to do with this (wow, turns out favourite music or outdoor activities are correlated with particular political preferences), the implied "consider voting for" and explicit "which parties align with your values" is what most folks will take away.
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I think these quizzes are really dangerous for democracy, putting a *huge* amount of power in the hands of those who decide how to interpret your simplified perspectives. Turning complex issues into simple algorithmic scores can make it real easy to guide voters towards particular recommendations.
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I've already written before about some of why I hate "voting by quiz," where an opaque group of people decide how to classify overly simplified preferences: estsjournal.org/index.php/es...
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I'm not linking to it here to avoid driving traffic, but it promises:
"Still unsure who to vote for or just want to better understand which parties align with your values? Leger-XXX is here to help."
Then it asks you your skin colour, favourite band, favourite movie, and spits out parties.
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I’ve been searching for a week for where I put my bass drum pedal at some point. Have the entire rest of the drum kit set up… but one bloody pedal nowhere to be found.
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They’re not gonna… put it in DHS…. are they…..
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Congrats, Mike - fantastic news! Looking forward to finding opportunities to collaborate :)
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Thanks, Mica - appreciate it!!
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Thanks, Mike!!
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Congratulations to both Dr Wang and the TRU team!
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Daylight is a public good and a public health benefit. It should be at the time the most people can benefit from it, which is not at 5am.
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CONGRATULATIONS. So well deserved!
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It was registered as a lightning strike near Glendon College via the lightning detection network, unless you’re hearing otherwise? Seemed like thundersnow as we were getting graupel in the east end.
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Interested!
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You know it's bad when I don't even know what part of the *gestures at hellscape* you're referring to. Urgh.
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Full spreadsheet here: bsky.app/profile/josh...