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Let me make my POINT as simple and CLEAR as possible. The song “Smoke on the Water” by the 1970s rock band Deep Purple has more than great riffs. It is a song inspired by true events, recounting the 1971 fire at Montreux Casino in Switzerland during a Frank Zappa and The Mothers of Invention concert. The band, witnessing the venue burn from their hotel room, had been planning to use the casino’s theatre as a recording studio but instead captured the chaos in a legendary musical composition, remaining resilient and adjusting their plans to complete their famous “Machine Head” album in 1972. Albeit, the nature of the “smoke” in this Bonnie’s Babble column is somewhat different.

 This time it is about the "fire in the sky,” which, even as I write this, is coming from the precious forests burning across parts of western Canada. We have seen the smoky haze in the skies over the lake in Pointe-Claire, especially during sunset and sunrise. We have been advised to remain indoors at times and/or wear masks while having to be outside. And this is not a political “smoke screen”!

Bonnie’s Babble adapted a version of the song:

“We all came out to Pointe-Claire
On the Lake Saint-Louis shoreline

To make recordings (with a mobile)

We didn't have much time.

Too bad Frank Zappa and the Mothers

Were nowhere to be found.

But dry conditions in the forests

Burned many trees to the ground.

[Chorus]

Smoke on the water, a fire in the sky

Smoke on the water

(Repeat once; insert super cool guitar solo here.)

So, what is the main cause of climate change?

According to the government of Canada, human activity is the main cause of climate change. From burning fossil fuels to power our vehicles, factories, and heat our homes, to cutting down forests to provide housing and clear space to grow food, population growth bears the brunt of the responsibility when it comes to why our world is changing.

Burning fossil fuels produces carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas. Why is it called a “greenhouse gas”? Because greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide and methane (we won’t be going there in this piece!) trap heat and warm the surrounding area. While this can be favourable when you’re trying to grow strawberries in January, it is decidedly less so when the ice caps are melting, neighbourhoods are being destroyed by unexpected changes in weather, or crops (like coffee and cocoa beans for my chocolate!) are being devastated.

Perhaps a trip back to the clean worlds of some of our favourite cartoon characters is in order (so clean that married couples slept in the same room but in separate beds!). Hanna-Barbera Productions created “The Flintstones,” an animated sitcom that ran for six seasons beginning in 1960, and then “The Jetsons,” which originally aired from 1962 to 1963. These shows may have the clues to show how they combatted the impact of industrialization in their respective time periods.

While the Flintstones lived in a world that was a comical version of the Stone Age, with machines powered by birds and dinosaurs and cars that operated on foot power, the Jetsons lived in a comical version of the Space Age with elaborate robotic contraptions, aliens, holograms, and whimsical inventions, but without overhead power lines... or power outages. (Fun fact: the pilot episode of “The Jetsons” is set in 2062, 100 years after its airdate, and describes George Jetson as being 40 years old. That means George Jetson was born in 2022!)

So, here we are in the year 2025, and we have yet to find a real solution — but as long as there are reruns of those cartoons, I’m ready to concede to being a part of that problem.

Much love (and silliness)!

I’ll be back in October. If you have good “Babble” ideas for next month, feel free to contact me at: bonnierwords2024@gmail.com.