Climate change and wildfires

Oct. 28

The Los Angeles Times

California is in a state of emergency. Since early October, millions of people in the northern and southern parts of the state have had their electricity shut off to prevent downed power lines from setting off deadly fires, like the ones that ravaged the state last year. But these unprecedented outages haven’t been as effective as had been hoped; despite them, a series of wildfires, fanned by extraordinarily heavy winds, have swept through the state forcing hundreds of thousands of people to evacuate their homes.

Nobody can honestly say this is a surprise, given the devastating fires of recent years. Yet it feels surprising all the same. How did things get so bad in California, so quickly?

The answer is climate change. It is here and our communities are not ready for it. …

But the wildfires are just the beginning of what Californians can expect. We know what’s coming as the effects of climate change became more pronounced. The state will have to contend with more floods, coastal erosion and deadly heat waves. Intense weather will overwhelm existing public and private infrastructure unless we adapt now and build more resilient communities.

California has been a leader in trying to slow climate change by cutting greenhouse gas emissions. That is still essential work because there’s still time to avoid some of the worst effects of global warming.

Climate change is at our doorstep in California. The rest of the world should be paying attention.