Dear America: Your BBQ is Cancelled. So is Your Hypocrisy. |The Planet D: Adventure Travel Blog

An Open Letter to the United States of America

When California was on fire, Canada sent water bombers to assist. When our country is burning… You sent us a criticism letter. America, we’d like to speak.

Dear United States Congress,

Thank you a lot to your deeply concerned letter about our wildfires “ruining your summer.” Truly touching.

We apologize that our forests, after many years of record heat, drought, and company deforestation (a few of it by your personal timber giants), had the audacity to catch fire and interrupt your BBQs and lake weekends.

But because you’re so concerned, let’s review the scoreboard:

When California was engulfed in flames, Canada sent water bombers. No letter. No whining. Just help. Because that’s what friends do.

We routinely send highly trained Canadian firefighters to California, Oregon, and Washington when your forests are burning down faster than a rant out of your president. We don’t send a letter complaining in regards to the smog drifting north, we send help.

When your hospitals were overwhelmed and out of PPE through the pandemic, we shipped masks and gloves south. At the identical time, Trump threatened to chop us off. No letter. Just help.

When 9/11 happened, we took in 33,000 stranded passengers and fed them in Gander, Newfoundland. We didn’t send a letter complaining about our tourism season. We opened our doors. You might try it sometime as a substitute of burning the planet for campaign money.

Meanwhile, you send us… a letter.

You write with concern about your “ability to go outside and safely breathe.” We’re concerned about that too. We’ve been concerned for many years as your corporations have belched more carbon into our shared atmosphere than almost another country on Earth. You lecture us about “energetic forest management” while concurrently gutting your personal environmental protections and subsidizing the very fossil fuel industry that’s setting our planet on fire.

All the while, we’re actually investing in green energy to forestall these fires before they begin. You might try it sometime as a substitute of burning the planet for campaign money.

You need to discuss what’s “ruining the summer”? Let’s talk in regards to the raw sewage and industrial waste you’ve been dumping into the Great Lakes for a century. Let’s talk in regards to the invasive species that hitch a ride in your ships and decimate our ecosystems. Let’s talk in regards to the acid rain out of your factories that has poisoned our lakes and forests for generations.

Oh, and let’s discuss that “outdoor recreation” you’re so anxious about. You know, the identical outdoors you’ve been paving over with pipelines, fracking, and oil rigs. The same air you’ve been happily polluting for many years, accelerating the climate crisis that makes these wildfires worse.

Your letter mentions arson, but conveniently ignores the first accelerant for these fires: climate change. A crisis you’ve got actively lobbied to disregard.

So please, spare us the lecture. Don’t you dare complain in regards to the smoke in your sky when you’ve got helped construct the hearth.

You accuse us of “a scarcity of forest management”? Please. Our forests are twice the scale of the state of Texas. And guess what? We didn’t spend many years denying climate change while burning coal prefer it was going out of favor.

We Canadians love our summers, too. We also love having the ability to breathe. But most of all, we value friendship and reciprocity. Things which are clearly in brief supply south of the border lately. Real friends show up with buckets, not criticism letters.

If you’re so desperate for fresh air, perhaps stop voting for politicians who think the one green policy value supporting is the colour of their campaign donations.

Instead of sending snarky letters, how about sending fire crews? Or perhaps as a substitute of funneling your giant defense budget into more tanks, border partitions, and that Big Beautiful Bill budget that props up ICE and billionaires, you may help fight actual global threats. Like climate change?

Next time there’s a crisis, perhaps look within the mirror before you look north.

With all of the polite Canadian sincerity we are able to muster,

Canada and The Planet D

Want to sign this letter too?

Leave a comment below with:
“Signed, [Your Name]” (and be at liberty so as to add where you’re from!)

Let’s show that real friends show up with buckets, not criticism letters.