Re “Wildfires become political tinder,” Nov. 14

Calls to stop building homes in certain fire-prone places and for better management of our forests are correct. But, as my mother once told me, when the bathtub is overflowing the first thing you do is turn off the water. The first thing we need to do is stop changing the climate.

We need to work right now on moving our economy to clean energy. We need to be able to plug in our vehicles, and we need to build (or rebuild) our homes and buildings so they actually save water and produce energy.

Sadly, these fires are reminding us that our inaction to date has deadly consequences. Let’s get to work. Dan Jacobson

Sacramento The writer is state director of Environment California.

With wildfires becoming more frequent and more devastating, and thus more expensive and more deadly, we as a state must ramp up solar installation and reduce the number of power lines and substations.

If we give homeowners and businesses more incentives to install solar power systems, we might save money in the long run. We would certainly save lives.

With increasing use of electricity generated on site, power lines through fireprone areas will become unnecessary. Wes Kobernick

Los Angeles

While President Trump blamed bad forest management, Gov. Jerry Brown countered that climate change is contributing to these disasters. Trump’s claim is blatantly false, while Brown’s is clearly true.

The article concludes with a false choice between being prepared for wildfire emergencies and acting to slow climate change. We must do both. We must reduce human-related ignitions and end development in dangerous locations.

We must also reduce the greenhouse gas emissions that are driving climate change. John D. Kelley

Santa Barbara