(This letter was sent to the AVNews on August 18. It was published in the August 27 2025 print edition and online on the AVNews website on August 30)
Dear Editor,
Port Alberni has dodged a 4th climate-change bullet. If we want any chance of adapting to a “new normal”, we must end the use of fossil fuels immediately.
The first bullet was the 2021 Atmospheric River that didn’t impact Port Alberni catastrophically like other places.
Second: the 2023 Cameron Lake fire. We had weeks of road closures but our lives were not threatened directly.
Third: Wesley Ridge. People near Cameron Lake were impacted, but again, not Port Alberni.
Then at 6:43PM on August 11, smoke from the Underwood Fire billowed over the hills south of the City.
By a stroke of sheer luck, this was during the longest stretch of northerly winds Port Alberni had seen for a month. Between July 19th and August 18th, every day except three — August 10th, 11th, and 12th — has seen south afternoon winds that would have pushed the fire toward the City.
Human-caused climate change has made these events worse and more frequent. We must end the use of fossil fuels immediately to stabilize CO2 levels and the climate and give ourselves a chance to adapt.
Sincerely
Chris Alemany
