Article content continued

Could climate change be a factor, here? Sure. Let’s assume, for the sake of argument, that it is.

Even accepting that, what happened to Fort McMurray is not the fault of the people of Fort McMurray. Blaming them for karmic destiny is not only insensitive — not that I put much stock in sensitivity, either — it’s just plain dumb.

Climate change is what jargon-lovers would call a collective action problem. Most of us receive the benefits and wealth of fossil fuels, either directly or indirectly. We like warm homes, driving to work, flying to sunny spots for vacation. We love the ability to use our petrochemical gadgets to share pictures of our families, to shame those we disagree with — to share nasty opinions about the likes of people in Fort McMurray, all the better to demonstrate our own infallible virtue.

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or

We are all hypocrites. And the consequences of that hypocrisy, of our lifestyle, will fall, unpredictably, on the few. Fort McMurray is not responsible for this. And I don’t mean that in a crude mathematical sense. Of course, it’s easy to note that the oil sands account for a fraction of a fraction of global emissions; that even if Canada were to introduce drastic climate change measures, the effect on a global scale would be utterly nominal. (Which does not excuse inaction, of course.)

No, I mean it in on a philosophical level. We are all responsible for climate change. Fort McMurray simply produces some of the product we all consume. That does not make the town uniquely morally culpable for the consequences of climate change. Quite the opposite. It means Fort McMurray is doubly its victim.