Los Angeles fires are a climate disaster. Here's what we can do.
Let's not allow the spin machine to distract us from this fact. But I'll still offer hope.
Dear Readers, I’ll shower you with good news down below. But first, it would be tone deaf not to grieve with Los Angeles. By Monday, the fires had burned 60 square miles and 12,000 structures. At least 25 lives have been lost. Unfortunately, winds are returning, and it’s not over yet. We must open our hearts, wallets and homes to the refugees of this enormous disaster, the largest in U.S. history.
The misinformation, blame game and digital noise are as much of a storm as the fires. The bottom line? These fires were unequivocally worsened by human-induced climate change.1
“Nothing will stop the Santa Ana winds,” people proclaim, including my Southern California-born husband. True. But it’s more than that.
This one fact explains the fires more than any other: Los Angeles hasn’t seen rain since May. That, plus the winds, is a recipe for fire. Just one good rain might have prevented it.
Don’t let the noise drown out that astonishing statistic. No rain for eight months. That’s climate change.
“In downtown Los Angeles, just 0.16 inches of rain has fallen since May 6, compared to the average of greater than 4 inches, per the National Weather Service,” reports Axios. The Santa Ana winds were more powerful than they’ve been in two decades as a result of climate change, also according to Axios.
These were not forest fires. They were brush fires started by fireworks-wielding idiots and arsonists. Fire spread to combustible homes and produced an urban conflagration fanned by hurricane-force hot winds.
However, I agree wholeheartedly that the state’s forests are grossly mismanaged and need massive thinning and prescribed fire (the federal government manages more than half of California’s forests and a little under half of the state’s overall land). Scientists and tribes support changing environmental laws like the National Environmental Policy Act and California Environmental Quality Act that have for far too long enabled frivolous lawsuits and delayed wildfire prevention. These huge disasters will continue if we don’t act to restore low-intensity fire to the state’s landscape. Our ecosystems evolved with and depend on good fire.
The worst disaster in U.S. history and mainstream media continues its incompetence
I, too, as a wildfire reporter, once wandered the rubble of burnt homes, imploring ashen-faced victims to express their loss. So often, they were speechless. Not just homes, but also memories, work, art, beloved neighbors, relatives and pets are gone in the blink of an eye. There are no words.
The footage looks all too familiar. But the magnitude is unprecedented.
As
writes in “The Lessons of the Titanic are enduring,” which I highly recommend as an incredible ode to California’s people, beauty and promise:The scale of the environmental disaster will dwarf the damage caused by the 9/11 clean-up. The pollution is toxic, cancerous and deadly. The magnitude of the environmental crisis is almost impossible to comprehend.
This is going to be the most expensive disaster in the history of the United States.
The costs will beggar imagination and become multiples of the initial estimates of $160 billion in damage, but it is beyond that.
I read this and then checked the front page of The New York Times, which claims to be a paper for the entire nation and world, with 20 times the online subscribers of the Los Angeles Times. Astonishingly, it’s business as usual. They’re still reserving an entire third of their front page for health and human interest.2
This is inexcusable.
Is this how the New York Times covered Superstorm Sandy? I think not.
An expensive consulting firm likely advised the paper that readers are tuning out the constant bad news (correct), so they should always run something “light” and “human interest” above the fold (wrong).
We need to talk about causes and solutions. We need stories that inspire action. We need the big picture.
Who’s already awake?
Many are saying this should be a wake-up call.
But I’m already awake. Wide awake. How about you?
Climate change is real.
These are the names of those who woke me:
Angora Fire … Hurricane Katrina … Superstorm Sandy … Santa Rosa Fire … Camp Fire … Caldor Fire … Park Fire … Lahaina Fire … Hurricane Helene …
Los Angeles.
Please hold the people of Los Angeles in your hearts.
We can spin in circles with the pundits talking about water management, fuels management, land management, personnel and budget management and city, state and national politics. It’s all human error. It’s clear that it’s not just the unstoppable Santa Ana winds.
And, let’s not allow the spin machine to distract us from the biggest problem of all: climate change.
The renewable energy revolution is unstoppable
We can solve climate change. Am I an untiring optimist? No. Will we solve it? I don’t know. But I know we can.
Climate scientist
at puts it simply in a recent newsletter:There are two facts that keep me grounded, and here they are:
When humans stop emitting greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, the climate will stop warming.
We have the technology to mostly stop emissions over the next few decades.
Solar is now the cheapest energy on the planet. Last year, 96% of new U.S. power capacity was renewable, thanks to the Inflation Reduction Act. U.S. greenhouse gas emissions peaked in 2007. This is why oil companies are desperately looking for other countries in which to create dependency on their products. Furthermore, many climate watchers believe global emissions peaked in 2024.
I’ll repost a quote from
’s “Finding optimism in outrage” from last fall:Clean energy is like a giant boulder that’s already reached its tipping point and is now rolling downhill toward a greener future. It’s got millions of hands on it, from individuals to some of the biggest countries, cities, and companies in the world. It could still be slowed by actions of governments and corporations—delays that will have serious consequences for people and planet alike—but it can’t be stopped. Gravity, history, and progress are on our side.
Finally, the latest from
, which is run by , has a great interview with Bloomberg News reporter Akshat Rathi. The article argues that capitalism can help solve climate change. When governments fund initial research and kickstart development, which the U.S. and China have done for solar panel and battery technology, eventually market forces seize on the affordability. This is what has fueled the solar boom and why it’s likely unstoppable.The world (mostly China) now manufactures more than enough solar panels per year to transition the entire world to a net-zero emissions economy over the next few decades!
We must continue to cut emissions and build out renewable energy. And we must not forget that conservation and restoration initiatives are not just great for fish and wildlife, they also capture carbon.
What I write about here at Earth Hope are often those forgotten corners of carbon sequestration: restoring wetlands, grasslands and ocean ecosystems. Billions have been spent to do just that throughout the world (read below⬇️), relying on millions of everyday humans like ourselves, young and old, parents, kids, teachers, tribes, faith-based communities, conservationists, philanthropists and volunteers.
Like those winds, we are unstoppable.
Hopeful headlines
From The Guardian: National Trust to restore nature across area bigger than Greater London
Now the National Trust is marking its 130th anniversary by unveiling “moonshot” plans to address what it regards as the current national need – the climate and nature crises. … To underline the scale of the plans, it said this would be 10 times the amount of landscape, such as peatlands, meadows, wetlands, woodlands and salt marsh, it has restored over the last decade.
From The Guardian: ‘The dead zone is real’: why US farmers are embracing wildflowers. Strips of native plants on as little as 10% of farmland can reduce soil erosion by up to 95%. This story highlights an important economic incentive program for environmental restoration called the USDA’s Conservation Reserve Program, which was targeted by Project 2025 for elimination.
“To a conventional farmer, this looks like a weed patch with a few pretty flowers in it, and I admit it looks odd in the corn and soy landscape in central Iowa. But I do it for several reasons, that I think are good reasons,” he said. “I’m trying to be more climate-change resilient on my farm.”
From the BBC, related to creating nature buffers around agricultural land: Baby dormice found at reserve for first time. Dormice spend all their time in trees and bushes. They will not travel across a field. Farming every inch of land has complicated this existence and caused a 75% decline in population since 2000. Restoration efforts involve convincing farmers to include hedgerows and reestablishing dormice in nature reserves where trees and bushes are properly cared for.
I’ve never been to Morecombe Bay, UK, but I got hooked on news from Morecombe Bay Partnership when I learned they multiplied endangered dormice a couple of years ago.🙌 This video is their 2024 year-in-review. Since we have a wheelchair user in the house, I was psyched to see that they showed mobility scooters using the trails. Disabled people need nature as much as the rest of us.
From Substack’s New Zealand scientist
: Don't forget non-forest carbon-rich ecosystems!Instead, conservation or restoration of existing grasslands, savannahs, wetlands, or peatlands on land, or coastal salt marshes, seagrass meadows, mangroves and kelp forests should be prioritised. These systems can store immense amounts of carbon. And careful restoration can bring widespread co-benefits for both the climate and biodiversity.
From Reasons to be Cheerful: A Ranch, Rewilded: The Transformation of California’s Next State Park
“It recharges groundwater. It filters polluted water. It nourishes riparian forests that support all kinds of wildlife. It’s alive.”
From USA Regenerative Agriculture Alliance: Soil Carbon Cowboys Revitalizing Land, Livestock, and Lives
Introduced to regenerative grazing, its positive impact on soil health and its ability to remove carbon from the air and place it back into the soils, Byck set out to explore this revolutionary way to raise cattle.
From IFL Science: Endangered Seabird Returns To Pacific Island For First Time In Over 100 Years. This topic is related to my story from last year: How poison is saving millions of seabirds.
One of the key parts of the project was ridding the island of invasive rat species. As ground-nesting birds, the storm-petrels’ eggs and flightless young were particularly vulnerable to being preyed upon by the rodents, leading to the loss of the birds from the island – and a dwindling population in the rest of their habitat.
From Newsweek: The World's Fifth-Largest Economy Is About to Ban Most Polystyrene Foam (yes, that’s California)
"We found that this could eliminate up to 3.9 billion pieces of foam ware every single year," Anja Brandon, director of plastics policy at the environmental nonprofit Ocean Conservancy, told Newsweek.
From IndyStar: Indiana's last habitat for endangered Mitchell's satyr butterfly saved by conservation group
“I think this is something that’s really important for all of us in Indiana,” Chapman said. “That we had such a gem that was still out there, and we were able to save it is a story for all of us.”
From Mongabay: After trial and error, Mexican fishers find key to reforesting a mangrove haven
So far, the project has planted more than 1.8 million mangroves that have a 92-94% survival rate, Borbón estimated.
“The project carried out by Mr. David Borbón has contributed as a measure of mitigation and adaptation to climate change,” Marco Antonio Gonzalez Viscarra, director of the El Vizcaíno Biosphere Reserve, told Mongabay over email.
From SF GATE: A conservation model for the world is born in Marin County. This is the same topic as my recent post “Why did the cougar cross the road”?
The brigadiers protect the exposed [newts] using a simple and low-cost solution: carrying them across the road. Since its inception, the humble effort has blossomed into a full-fledged operation involving 70 to 80 volunteers organized into seven dedicated teams.
About Earth Hope:
Earth Hope is a solutions-based journalism project that highlights environmental success stories from around the globe, because hope is the foundation of progress. I’m Amanda Royal, a former newspaper reporter and current eco-news junkie. Read more about this project and what inspired it.
Earth Hope is not affiliated with any environmental group. Visit earthhope.substack.com for more stories. For the best photo viewing experience, click the main headline above to view using a desktop browser.
As of Tuesday, January 14, the fires were not their top story.
"Like those winds, we are unstoppable." ❤
“Don’t need a weather person to tell which way wind blows” backyard still here but fire sill surrounds. Topanga town and San Fernando valley parts unscathed. Thanks to fire fighters, helicopters and waterscooper planes Bags packed for next few days. Controlled brush clearance Native Americans did for thousand years. Lived sustainable life. Now have to wonder where do you dispose contaminants waste? Ocean is not an option there’s no swimming for months.