Finland ends homelessness and provides shelter for all in need – scoop.me: In 2008 you could see tent villages and huts standing between trees in the parks of Helsinki. Homeless people had built makeshift homes in the middle of Finland’s capital city. They were exposed to harsh weather conditions.

Since the 1980s, Finnish governments had been trying to reduce homelessness. Short-term shelters were built. However, long-term homeless people were still left out. There were too few emergency shelters and many affected people did not manage to get out of homelessness: They couldn’t find jobs – without a housing address. And without any job, they couldn’t find a flat. It was a vicious circle. Furthermore, they had problems applying for social benefits. All in all, homeless people found themselves trapped.

But in 2008 the Finnish government introduced a new policy for the homeless: It started implementing the “Housing First” concept. Since then the number of people affected has fallen sharply.

“In Finland, the number of homeless people has fallen sharply. Those affected receive a small apartment & counselling with no preconditions. 4 out of 5 people affected make their way back into a stable life. And all this is CHEAPER than accepting homelessness.”

In B.C.’s bone-dry northeast, what happens when wildfires and fracking collide? | The Narwhal: Takaro, professor emeritus and former
associate dean for research in Simon Fraser University’s health sciences
faculty, is trying to determine what happens if a wildfire burns
through a fracking operation. Fracking releases methane mixed with other
polyaromatic hydrocarbons and other toxicants like mercury, sulfur
dioxide and hydrogen sulfide, he pointed out. “Burning that is not a
good idea. Many of these chemicals are carcinogenic. Some of them are
also reproductive toxicants.”

“Depending on the stage of the fracking,
there will be gas on site. There will be fracking materials stored in
tanks. And there will be a network of piping and the well itself. So
there’s plenty of material there that you would not want to have
released into the atmosphere.”

Burning produces particulate matter
containing its own complex mix of toxicants, which can include
polyaromatic hydrocarbons and heavy metals, as well as nitrogen oxides,
sulfur dioxide and the particles themselves, which are harmful. “This is
a toxic mix, concentrated in a generally rural area, surrounded by
forests,” Takaro said. “It’s not hard to conceive of an out of control
wildfire ripping through one of these facilities.”

Canada reports worst wildfire season on record — and there’s more to come this fall | CBC News: June, which is normally a quieter month for fires, was particularly bad this year, which has pushed up the figures, he said.

There’s
been 211 evacuation orders issued so far with more than 167,000 people
forced to temporarily relocate to avoid disaster, federal data shows.

The
fires have burned valuable land, displaced people and
threatened communities — and they’ve also been devastating for the
environment.

The fires have already released one billion tonnes of
carbon dioxide emissions into the air, Norton said, which is roughly
the same figure as what the entire global airline industry emits in a
year.

“This kind of simultaneous fire activity in all regions of
the country is virtually unheard of, it’s usually more regional,” he
said.

“There has been very little respite since May. This season
has been relentless. This is by far the largest amount of area burned
since we started keeping good records,” he said.

Why do wildfires often ignite a firestorm of conspiracy theories? | CBC News: Conditions were already ripe for
wildfires, with a combination of persistent dry weather and drought,
when Maui was hit with powerful winds on Aug. 8, sending flames racing
across swaths of the island.

But the tragedy has
spurred social media posts that would have you believe that it was a
laser beam from space that sparked the devastating blaze or that the
disaster may be a part of a land grab or a sinister ploy to develop a 15-minute city on the tropical island — familiar conspiracy theories that have thrived in times of disaster.

There
is no proof any of these are true — often they can easily be debunked —
but theories like these can thrive in times of uncertainty after a
disaster strikes, say experts, as people try to make sense of a tense
and emotional situation and anxiously look for a cause to pinpoint.

“Everybody
is susceptible to mis- and disinformation, but in different ways and
for different reasons,” said Samantha Bradshaw, an assistant professor
at the school of international service at American University in
Washington, D.C.

But wildfires in particular, she said, present a unique opportunity for rumours and false narratives to spread.

‘Significant structures’ lost in West Kelowna with evacuation orders growing due to wildfires | Globalnews.ca: The
exact number is not known but Loyal Wooldridge, chair of the Regional
District Central Okanagan (RDCO) Board said structures have been lost in
the Traders Cove area and Bear Lake Road in the City of West Kelowna.

He added that there has been no confirmed loss of life at this time.

BC
Wildfire said the estimated size of the fire Friday morning is 6,800
hectares or 68 square kilometers. Thursday it was mapped at 1,100
hectares.