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Los Angeles Fires and Climate Change: What Is the Connection ? [1]

['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']

Date: 2025-01-09

The California Air Resources Board (CARB) is charged with protecting the public from the harmful effects of air pollution and for developing programs and actions to fight climate change. They maintain that a major contributing factor to the escalation of wildfires in California is, in fact, climate change. They assert that longer droughts and hotter summers, two factors that set the stage for wildfires are consequences of climate change. These two factors have resulted in drier vegetation that acts as kindling helping fires to spread rapidly and making forests more susceptible due to less snowfall and early runoff.

Although California has experienced wildfires for hundreds if not thousands of years, experts in the field say California's fire season has been prolonged by these shifting conditions. What used to be a “fire season” has now become almost year round. Stronger winds and more frequent heat waves are two effects of climate change, according to the CARB, that can accelerate and spread flames. These elements work together to increase the frequency, severity, and destructiveness of wildfires in the state.

You don’t have to be a climatologist to see that the rising temperatures, fierce winds and a prolonged lack of precipitation are the perfect ingredients for wildfires. Daniel Swain, a climatologist at the University of California, Los Angeles, told NASA's Earth Observatory that one of the most direct ways climate change is influencing California fires is through temperature increases. According to him, heat "essentially transforms the atmosphere into a giant sponge that draws moisture from plants, allowing fires to burn hotter and longer."

As I’ve noted, the lack of rain increases the risk of fire and Southern California has had the driest start to winter on record, with no precipitation since October. For example, the National Weather Service reports that the start of the water year in Los Angeles has been the driest since records began in 1944, with just 0.03 inches of rain falling at the airport since October 1, the start of the state's water year.

The tragic final outcome of the fire in Los Angeles is still unknown. As the fires rage on, our focus should be on rescuing and attempting to protect the areas that have not yet burned. But what is known and can’t be denied is that climate change – something we have some degree of control over – played a big role in this crisis.

Sadly, the impact of climate change is not the focus of many on the right. The response from some on the right to the fires in Los Angeles County is the fallback position they have taken recently. They are placing blame on “wokeness”. A few, with notoriety, are saying the blame lies at the feet of "wokeness," diversity, equity, and inclusion.

Some have even speculated that "Los Angeles deliberately set out to exclude white men from becoming firefighters," which contributed to the firefighter shortage.

Right-wing comic Adam Carolla made a speech a few years ago lamenting the fact that he was not hired as a Los Angeles Fire Fighter. The punchline was the he was rejected because he was "not Black, Hispanic, or a woman". The right is now citing Carolla’s standup as proof for their anti-wokeness stance. However, many conservatives are unaware that Carolla's story, assuming it is accurate, occurred in the 1980s.

This tragedy is happening, as I write this article, where I live. I am safe but keeping watch. One of the contributors to the LA Progressive, Sonali Kolhatkar, who also lives in the region, evacuated. She was interviewed on Democracy Now! along with award-winning author of "Fire Weather: A True Story from a Hotter World," John Vaillant. Vaillant makes the case that climate change and long-term shifts in temperature are significant contributors to what we are seeing in Los Angeles. Interestingly enough, neither Sonali Kolhatkar nor John Vaillant mentioned wokeness as a cause. Hmmm.

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