Canada’s fires update

A great article here from The Walrus:

As fires threaten First Nations communities more than ever before, Indigenous-led wildfire crews are stepping onto the front lines. Journalist Trina Moyles reports on how local firefighters are building the skills to protect their own communities: https://thewalrus.ca/first-nations-firefighters/

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— The Walrus (@thewalrus.ca) July 23, 2026 at 10:01 AM

The Walrus regional correspondent for Northern Canada Trina Moyles writes

…Communities across the country have been frustrated with government-led firefighting and evacuation resources arriving too little, too late. Between 1980 and 2021, First Nations communities were included in 45 percent of all wildfire evacuations in Canada, despite representing under 5 percent of the population during this period. From 2016 to 2026, the number of First Nations communities facing short-term and long-term—more than sixty days—evacuations due to wildfires has more than tripled. In July, an extreme heat wave hit Ontario, igniting runaway wildfires in the northwestern part of the province and forcing some residents to flee by boat, including Namaygoosisagagun, or Collins First Nations.
All of this has fuelled the argument for a grassroots approach to equipping local crews. In 2018, YFNW [Yukon First Nations Wildfire] launched the territory’s first Indigenous-led wildfire unit—a twenty-person crew capable of “sustained action,” the weeks-long campaigns required to contain major fires. A second unit was added a year later. Both are run solely by YFNW.
With wildfires increasingly threatening First Nations, “communities have taken it upon themselves to train their firefighters, their populations,” says chief operating officer Hyder Bos-Jabbar. The people with the most to lose, in other words, are now building the capacity they need.
YFNW’s focus on local communities is part of a larger movement for First Nations to take the lead on wildfire planning, mitigation, suppression, and recovery. While some experts call for a centralized, nationwide force, Amy Cardinal Christianson, a leading scholar on Indigenous wildfire management, has argued that every layer of bureaucracy pushes decision making further from the people who have lived with the threat for generations. Rather than concentrating expertise in outside institutions, she contends, Canada should invest in Indigenous wildfire guardians—an “untapped resource,” as she described them in the Globe and Mail.
YFNW is ahead of the curve. The organization employs sixty-eight wildland firefighters, including First Nations and non–First Nations members. They deliver training and water-pump equipment to communities in the Yukon and also across the North in fly-in areas. One of those workshops took place in Fort Good Hope, 800 kilometres from Yellowknife, in the fall of 2023. Residents learned FireSmart programs, like reducing flammable materials around properties—removing trees, bushes, deck chairs, anything exposed to airborne embers—to minimize the risk of flames spreading from house to house.
It worked. In June 2024, when a wildfire threatened to raze Fort Good Hope, and the population of 500 was evacuated by boat and plane, some who’d taken the training stayed behind to use a high-pressure water pump to irrigate sprinkler systems set up around properties—with the goal of maintaining water flow over the structures—and “held the fire at bay until the NWT Government Resources could come and take over,” says Bos-Jabbar….

Amid wildfires that have displaced more than 2,800 people from First Nations across northwestern Ontario, a powwow in Fort William First Nation became a place of healing, culture and community. CBC shines a light on resilience, not just the crisis itself. ❤️

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— Save the CBC 🇨🇦✌️ (@savethecbc.bsky.social) July 25, 2026 at 11:15 AM

Today’s Commonwealth Games Update
Silver in Women’s Team Gymnastics!


Oliver Dawson came 4th in the 100 meter backstroke, missing the podium by .05 of a second.

Canadian Swimmer Oliver Dawson Narrowly Misses Commonwealth Games Podium

https://www.europesays.com/3154566/

Kylie Masse storms into 100m backstroke semifinals GLASGOW, Scotland – Oliver Dawson led the Canadian charge in the…

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— Continent Sentinel (@continentsentinel.bsky.social) July 26, 2026 at 12:12 AM

Sunday Funday – Interesting posts

To infinity and beyond?

Truth!

We’re never going to live on Mars.

We’re never going to live on the Moon.

There is no Planet B.

We need to take care of our magical mystical miraculous planet like it’s the only home we will ever have.

Because it is.

— The USA Singers (@theusasingers.bsky.social) July 17, 2026 at 5:35 PM

But we can still dream

Coming back to earth

Phun with Physics

I was today years old when I read about this statue

One of Africa’s tallest statues honors one of history’s most legendary armies of women.

Standing 98 feet tall in Benin, this monument pays tribute to the Agojie, the women warriors of the Kingdom of Dahomey. Unveiled in 2022, it celebrates their courage, strength, and enduring legacy.
#SheShed

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— Andrea Devon (@andreadevon.sheshed.rocks) July 23, 2026 at 8:50 AM

The Odyssey’s Canadian connection

The CBC is covering the fact that Matt Damon’s stunt double in The Odyssey is a 4’6” Canadian woman named Devyn Dalton with swole arms and chat, she has swole arms

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— Scoiattolo/a (@scoiattolo.mountainherder.xyz) July 24, 2026 at 11:01 AM

It is genuinely bizarre that we’ve become acclimatized to right wingers throwing a tantrum every time a black person (particularly a black woman) is cast in something, but are also supposed to pretend that this is not racism but related to some other substantive concern.

— Adam Serwer (@adamserwer.bsky.social) July 25, 2026 at 12:00 PM

Garbage people

this needs to be pinned and posterized.

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— Witty Librarian Resistance (@paulwartenberg.bsky.social) July 25, 2026 at 12:49 PM

(Me, learning that someone I thought was interesting and maybe even cool is anti-trans)

Huh, well, that’s that then

(Drops the whole person into the bin)

— John Scalzi (@scalzi.com) July 23, 2026 at 7:49 AM

Some good news about clean energy projects

South Korea built solar panels over highway medians and turned the space underneath into protected bike lanes. Clean energy + safe cycling, using infrastructure that already exists.

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— Digital Brain (@yourdigitalbrain.bsky.social) July 19, 2026 at 4:42 AM

China just got a heliostat plant – a concentrated solar power (CSP) station using a large field of computer-controlled mirrors, [heliostats], to reflect the sun on to a tall central tower – to power 170k homes a year and save 130k tons of CO2.

The US is getting a ballroom.

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— Max B 💙 🔶 🇺🇦 🇬🇧 🇪🇺 (@maxbrockbank.com) July 19, 2026 at 7:09 AM

Pornainen, Finland (pop 5,000) is now heated by a silo of crushed soapstone.

I spoke to CNBC about it. 100 MWh, charged when power is cheap, emissions down ~70%. Days to weeks of storage, no critical minerals.

www.cnbc.com/2026/07/25/f…

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— Jan Rosenow (@janrosenow.bsky.social) July 25, 2026 at 3:48 AM

Funny posts

Here are some of this week’s Trump jokes (though really, everything about Trump is a joke isn’t it)