British Columbia, Canada, 2021: We are surviving the vagaries of climate change
1. Heat dome: I’ve had to water my plants two times a day so they don’t die.
2. Five hundred and ninety-five people died as a direct result of extreme heat.
3. Lytton broke Canada’s hottest temperature record three days in a row, then burned to the ground on the fourth day.
4. It was a roughly one-in-a-thousand-year event but so far outside the range of historical temperatures that it is hard to estimate.
5. Blackened fairy lights still hang from steel rafters.
6. At least five churches were burned in response to the discovery of hundreds of unmarked children’s graves at former residential schools.
7. A woman with breathing difficulties is the first to be diagnosed as suffering from climate change.
8. More than a billion marine mussels, starfish, and oysters were in effect cooked by the abnormally warm water.
9. At the northern edge of the heat dome, calving glaciers produced ice quakes.
10. Raspberries cooked on the cane.
11. A strong atmospheric river resulted in all the highways connecting British Columbia to the rest of Canada being covered or destroyed.
12. Six people have been confirmed dead or missing in mudslides.
13. Right now, we have people who have lost everything.
14. Some people got out of their cars and swam to the fire hall.
15. The Bridge of Dreams is impassable with floodwater.
16. The frail and elderly have been evacuated from senior care.
17. My husband brought in a portable air cylinder for my breathing until we can get to chemo.
18. Our power and back-up gas generator were both out.
19. Old Hedley Road is still closed; do not remove the barricades.
20. Angela Avenue, Princeton is closed due to potentially unsafe buildings.
21. Six to 10 percent of Canadian homes are currently uninsurable due to flooding.
22. My dad is living in an RV with three kids and his girlfriend.
23. Trailers are especially dangerous in floods as they can be easily swept away.
24. Deployment of air support personnel to Princeton has begun.
25. The church made beds on their padded pews; the Sikh community prepared food in Gurdwaras and delivered it by helicopter.
26. Don’t drink the water.
27. In 1923, the Sumas people were displaced and Sumas Lake was drained; the floods of 2021 have now reclaimed the area.
28. Forty thousand chickens are dead on one Sumas Prairie farm due to flooding.
29. Farmers are asked not to risk their lives to reach their stranded animals.
30. We are working to remove animal carcasses.
31. I won’t be updating the mortality of livestock for a few days.
32. Three major rain events are due; we are expecting snow, and standing water will freeze.
33. I just heard our grocery store is getting empty.
34. Armed forces fill sandbags against the threat of another flood.
35. The scale of repairs is not yet estimated but will be in the billions.
36. The Princeton Flood Relief Fund raised $167,000 in a week.
37. What values should underpin our flood response?
38. The Prime Minister looks forward to going when it is safe and acceptable.
Found text from official statements, statistical sources, news items, social media and private messages from family in the area
Dr Jo Scott is an artist-researcher based in central Portugal. Jo’s research is conducted through performance, installation, sound walks and sonic experiences. She holds a practice-based PhD in intermedial performance-making and has worked on more than 20 artistic research projects. https://joanneemmascott.com/
Erin Coppin is a Canadian/British multidisciplinary creative based in the UK. As a poet, she has been published by Spelt Magazine, Popshot Quarterly, Knee Brace Press, and others. Instagram @coppin_erin http://www.erincoppin.co.uk
They have organised an online launch event on the evening of publication (2 February)! The link to the eventbrite registration is here. https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/british-columbia-canada-2021-video-poem-launch-event-tickets-1981587925829