This is not a drill. Alberta is on fire as we write. An area the size of 1,900,000 football fields just went up in smoke. This hellfire is not abating. This is the worst it's ever been. This is a dire moment. (1/7) 🧵 https://t.co/tkVIy9wNPe

Yes, some amount of wildfire is natural but what is happening now is off the charts. From mid-Feb til mid-May, many parts of Alberta received less than 50% of their usual rainfall. On top of this, temperatures were 3-6 degrees Celsius above average. (2/7)

This fossil fuel-induced drying and heating created a tinderbox that was primed to explode. That tinderbox is now exploding. (3/7)

This is not normal. Heat records in Alberta broke an astonishing 158 times this May - in the first half of the month alone. This set the stage for the catastrophic burning ravaging the province now. (4/7)

Residents are struggling to breathe. The air is "a garish blood orange." 29,000 Albertans have been forced to flee their homes.

This is the "Canadian Armageddon," declared a recent New York Times headline. (5/7) https://t.co/hPHqVZjo96

In a cruel irony the fires have had a profound impact on Indigenous-held lands and Indigenous communities - even as these communities have done the least to cause the problem and have fought harder than anyone to keep Alberta's vast reserves of tar sands oil underground (6/7)

This is not ok. This is an unmitigated moral, ethical and ecological disaster and this is also just a mere taste of what is in store if we do not turn around.

Shut down politicians' speeches. Occupy roads. Blockade fossil fuel infrastructure. We're in emergency mode. (7/7)