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Cindy Mac

@cindymacd.bsky.social

184 followers 367 following 268 posts

Disabled writer working in the climate space. WIP: a book on the 2021 Western Canada heat dome. Climate change kills. Believe patients.

Posts Replies Media

Cindy Mac @cindymacd.bsky.social · 22h

I’ve been visiting in the community of #Lytton this long weekend, learning from the survivors of the fire that happened here during the #2021HeatDome. I’m grateful for the opportunity to meet these incredible folks and see their beautiful community. A few quick snaps of the recovering beauty here…

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Cindy Mac @cindymacd.bsky.social · 18/08/2025

When I got to New West, my first time (what a gorgeous city!), I realized two things: 1. Hoo boy, this is a serious river valley with STEEP hills. 2. It would be blisteringly hot there in the summer without the river breeze. I saw lots of high rises, and no AC except what folks had rigged up.

A view up New Westminster's famous Eighth St at the corner of Columbia (where the WW1 photo, "Daddy, Wait for me!" was taken. It's much steeper than it looks in this snap.

A high rise on Columbia St. in New Westminster. Tenants on the 11th floor have rigged up a portable AC unit, sticking out of the child safe window.

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Cindy Mac @cindymacd.bsky.social · 18/08/2025

First, that corridor is wonderfully, verdantly green. From Waterfront station to New West, the streets are lined with trees and there are public green spaces galore. The region should absolutely continue to plant to create shade and coolness, but it's no slouch on this.

A photo taken from the SkyTrain Expo Line, of Science World peeking out from behind trees.

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Cindy Mac @cindymacd.bsky.social · 18/08/2025

We added a transit overlay. The death line now was closely following the Expo Line (navy blue line). And the dense, transit-friendly neighbourhoods lining it. Neighbourhoods that started densifying before any other SkyTrain line. Older buildings. No AC. As you get closer to the river, deaths go up.

The same image again, but with the transit lines added. The Expo Line follows the heat dome death pattern very closely.

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Cindy Mac @cindymacd.bsky.social · 18/08/2025

What do you see when you look at that map? I see a line. So I showed it to my second son, Isaac, a geography major at UVic. "Well, that's an obvious pattern," he said. "But following what?" We opened Google Maps. "It's following Highway 1A," he said. "Huh." But was it?

The previous map, now side by side with a Google maps satellite image of roughly the same area. Highway 1A runs through the area that correlates with more heat dome deaths.

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Cindy Mac @cindymacd.bsky.social · 18/08/2025

So, @pennydaflos.bsky.social, who has been on this story from day 1, did tremendous work a few years ago mapping where deaths happened. The BC Coroners Service gave her death locations to the first three places of the postal code, and she and an SFU prof mapped it. www.ctvnews.ca/vancouver/ar...

A map of the heat related deaths during the 2021 heat dome by Forward Sortation Area. Data: BC Coroner's Service. Map by Andy Yan, SFU. Reportage by Penny Daflos, CTV.

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