Main content
Sorry, this episode is not currently available

Episode 5

In 2021, a ground breaking lawsuit found that governments have a duty of care to protect their citizens from damage caused by companies responsible for emissions of damaging gases.

In May 2016, Fort McMurray, Alberta, the hub of Canada鈥檚 oil industry, was overrun by wildfire. The multi-billion-dollar disaster turned entire neighbourhoods into firebombs and drove 90,000 people from their homes in a single afternoon.

Through the story of this apocalyptic conflagration, John Vaillant explores the past and the future of our ever-hotter, more flammable world.

For hundreds of millennia, fire has been a partner in our evolution, shaping culture and civilization. Yet in our age of intensifying climate change, we are seeing its destructive power unleashed in ways never before witnessed by human beings.

John Vaillant delves into the intertwined histories of the oil industry and climate science, the unprecedented devastation wrought by modern wildfires, and the lives forever changed by these disasters.

Winner of the Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction

Abridged by Polly Coles
Read by Kerry Shale
Produced by Clive Brill

A Brill production for 主播大秀 Radio 4

14 minutes

Last on

Sat 17 Feb 2024 00:30

More episodes

Previous

Next

You are at the last episode

See all episodes from Fire Weather by John Vaillant

Broadcasts

  • Fri 16 Feb 2024 09:45
  • Sat 17 Feb 2024 00:30