(DON THOMPSON / iNFOnews.ca)

OPINION

If your house was on fire the immediacy of that threat would make you act, maybe desperately, but I’m pretty certain you wouldn’t ignore it.

This Summer has brought record high temperatures and record wildfires to Canada. More than 9.3 million hectares - some 23 million acres - have burned nationwide. Fort Good Hope in the Northwest Territories set a record high of 99.9 degrees Fahrenheit, a record temperature that far north.

It seems we should be terrified…knowing that the new reality for Canadians is steadily increasing high temperatures, more and bigger wildfires, more severe flooding more often. I used to ask, “How will our grandchildren live with these new realities?”

But at the pace of change in our environment many of our grandchildren will be too young to vote…much less take actions that we adults should have moved on decades ago to make our home - Earth - more hospitable…more habitable.

I wish I had better news…a more hopeful perspective…but the facts, science and our response to deadly changes in our environment thus far simply don’t support much optimism.

It’s not breaking news that our burning of fossil fuels has raised and continues to raise temperatures. But what is breaking news is that the heat pouring out of basements, parking garages, tunnels, sewers and electrical cables is warming the surrounding earth, according to new study by Northwestern University in Chicago, IL.

Some of us - too many - are just now accepting climate change as a fact…a truth…a reality. So, any hope that we’ll pay attention to underground climate change…well, it’s as distant as a small ship on the farthest horizon.

Since 1950 - the year I was born - on average the ground between Chicago’s streets and the bedrock beneath has warmed by 5.6 degrees Fahrenheit. What exactly does that mean in real terms?

That heat has made the layers of sand, clay and rock beneath many of the city’s larger buildings contract or swell by several millimetres over the decades…worsening cracks and defects in walls and foundations not only of homes but even bigger structures…skyscrapers.

Northwest University’s study reports Chicago’s underground changes are not some isolated event…it’s happening worldwide…every city with dense populations, tall buildings and underground infrastructure that releases heat.

Since everything - short of cracks and crevices above ground - is happening beneath the earth’s surface it’s easy to ignore…out of sight, out of mind. Of course, buildings won’t crumble before our very eyes…at least not yet. It takes time…another 50 years…100 years…and the problems of underground and aboveground climate change will converge.

If our history on reacting to aboveground climate change is in any way a predictor…we - or now I can say more precisely our grandchildren - might ignore the problem until some people suffer…and die.

Of course, what won’t change are those who will suffer the most…the poor and disadvantaged…the displaced millions of people who used to live in more hospitable regions like the earth’s equator.

While the Northwest University study reports a nearly 6-degree F increase on average beneath Chicago, hot spots beneath Chicagoans’ feet near some of the larger heat sources have warmed by 27 degrees Fahrenheit.

I couldn’t find any evidence that Canadian cities - Vancouver, Edmonton, Toronto and Montreal - are tracking underground temperatures…or correlating the effects on buildings. I do know that temperature sensors are about $80 a piece and Chicago has about 100 working sensors. The sensors record temperatures every minute to every ten minutes depending on location…and can be read by a Bluetooth-enabled mobile phone.

That seems like a reasonable price to get, you know…facts, scientific data…that can be used to make a life-saving decision. Perhaps we should consider it a home smoke alarm…only for all of us.

I’ve never been in a house fire…but I imagine it’s a pretty terrifying place to find yourself. I do know - even if I’m dead and gone - the thought today of my grandchildren being unable to escape the largest house fire ever…is far from comforting.

— Don Thompson, an American awaiting Canadian citizenship, lives in Vernon and in Florida. In a career that spans more than 40 years, Don has been a working journalist, a speechwriter and the CEO of an advertising and public relations firm. A passionate and compassionate man, he loves the written word as much as fine dinners with great wines.

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