a B|E Brief
Southern California, Greater Los Angeles more specifically, is - literally - on fire. It’s one massive blaze. Five people have lost their lives (that we know of, amid the chaos) and, reportedly, more than 2,000 structures have been destroyed. Thousands of firefighters continue to put an enormous amount of muscle into this catastrophe, with fire first responders from other states arriving on the scene. With all that non-stop smoke from the blaze, air quality alerts have been issued as pollution worsens (and air pollution was already a major problem in the Greater Los Angeles region).
Some quick thoughts on this …
First: welcome to the transition from climate change to climate crisis, everyone. It’s the apocalypse folks want to keep ignoring, even in the most casual conversations about weird weather or the happy-go-lucky local newsroom meteorologists who provide us with a steady serving of complete climate ignorance. Few want to talk about it, others - for ideological reasons - prefer forcing it out of our public discourse or acting like it doesn’t exist. Yet, scientists have been warning us about these exact moments for a long time and we continue to ignore those warnings at our own collective peril.
It’s noticeable that the general public had, for the most part, normalized California wildfires. In fact, the phrase “California wildfires” itself had become something of a pop culture idiom. That normalization, over time, had prompted most Americans - except Californians dealing with it - to somewhat dismiss these events and their root cause: climate catastrophe. What’s different now is how this particular wildfire is not in a distant or remote forest or in a lightly populated rural area or exurb. It’s overtaking the metropolitan area of the second-largest city in the U.S. with a combined population of 18.4 million (including the city of LA’s population of 4 million). It’s a disaster of apocalyptic-film proportions that can’t be casually ignored.
Reports of fire hydrants running out of water as firefighters desperately search for water to battle flames should place a spotlight on water scarcity in drought-ridden regions like Southern California … and elsewhere. The emphasis is on should because we’ve been ignoring that issue as droughts intensify and heat waves grow longer. What will this mean for other cities and states hit with relentless, long heat waves? Are other jurisdictions and policymakers, as well as public administrators, really learning lessons from these disasters?
When learning these lessons, will cities now think more deeply about heat and, yes, wildfire mitigation solutions rather than just allowing themselves to get trapped in a constant loop of useless disaster response. Here’s an important question: how to better prevent these fires (what are some creative strategies to do so) as opposed to relying on failed first-responder strategies? We appreciate their bravery, but how do we lower the risk they’re faced with? Thoughts turn to greater potential for the expansion of smart surface strategies such as porous street and sidewalk surfacing to capture and store water or the expansion of river gardens and urban meadows also designed for better water ecosystem management.
It’s tragic how certain political interests find the need to make a disaster like this, well, political in the bid to score more political points. Hence, California’s elected officials have become unfortunate and unnecessary prime targets at a time that calls for leadership and assistance. Tragically, expect more of that when disasters hit blue states as red-focused political interests will seek openings to not only slander Democratic politicians, but to also put them at a political disadvantage with disinformation campaigns as part of a larger effort to transform cities and states into Republican strongholds.
Those disinformation campaigns have, deliberately, ignored the fact that various water sources supply Los Angeles County were actually full before this event. The water supply tanks needed to fight a large blaze were already full. But when you have that much demand for that much water from multiple places at the same time, you not only lose water pressure, you’re losing water faster than you can keep up with. Added to that: wind gusts near 90 MPH along with a region that’s seen little to no rain for hundreds of days.
Media and, especially social media, is also partly to blame for the disaster unfolding before us. Major media outlets refuse to cover climate crisis in any urgent way - it’s only presented when disasters like hurricanes and wildfires strike. And social media continues to spread lies, disinformation and ignorance about what’s killing our collective life support system.
Keep an eye on insurance coverage in places like California and elsewhere. It’s important to note that large insurer State Farm, California’s insurance company of last resort, had dropped nearly three quarters of their customers in the Pacific Palisades last year.
Meanwhile, the culprits causing this mess, the fossil fuel industry, raked in record profits last year. Exxon Mobil: $56 billion. Shell: $40 billion. Chevron: $36 billion. BP: $28 billion. As consulting firm Deloitte reports …
… [O]il and gas companies have worked to ensure robust financial performance and retained investor trust. Over the last four years, the industry’s capital expenditures have increased by 53%, while its net profit has risen by nearly 16%.3 In fact, oilfield services reported its best performance for the 2023 to 2024 period in the past 34 years.4 Additionally, some companies are engaging in increased investments in low-carbon technology projects to help balance the risks associated with the traditional oil and gas market. These investments will likely help companies position themselves as key players in the future energy landscape.
Sounds like there is a case for climate reparations as disasters intensify.
