How the LA Fires Got So Bad So Fast

Greetings, Meteor readers,

The news from California has been heartbreaking; the Palisades, Eaton, and Hollywood Hills wildfires continue to sweep through the region, destroying entire neighborhoods, displacing thousands of people, and destroying wildlife. We hope all of our LA-based readers are keeping as safe as possible.

For anyone looking for a way to help those affected by the fires, please take a look at this list compiled by Mutual Aid Los Angeles Network.

In today’s newsletter, we piece together the connection between the California fires and climate change. Plus, your weekend reading list.

With love,

Shannon Melero

WHAT’S GOING ON

In the line of fire: The Palisades and Eaton wildfires, along with a smaller fire in the Hollywood Hills, are being called “the most destructive” fires in the history of Los Angeles. So far, five people have been killed and roughly 180,000 people are under evacuation orders in the area. January isn’t peak fire season in California—so how did these particular fires get so bad so fast?

The short answer is, for the most part, climate change. The longer answer is just how unseriously people in power are taking climate change.

Experts have been saying for years that climate change would continue to exacerbate extreme weather events—hurricanes, fires, lightning storms, droughts, and wild weather swings. In California, those predictions have borne out: Climate change has contributed to hotter and drier weather, making for dangerous wildfire conditions. California’s famous Santa Ana winds are blowing with gusts as high as 100 mph. Add all of that to other consequences of climate change, such as recent dry weather and an “exceptionally wet climate from winter 2023 to spring 2024” (which created younger vegetation that isn’t as fire-resistant), and you have a region primed for a particularly bad fire season.

There are other factors besides climate change, too: One scientist, UCLA professor Jon Keeley, told Mother Jones that power line failures, rapid population growth, and loss of fire-blocking vegetation in California have also played a large role in the fast spread of these fires.

Finally, there’s California’s under-preparedness in the face of our new “pyrocene” era: There’s been a yearslong firefighter shortage in the state. As the blazes broke out this week, every single LAFD firefighter was asked to call in with their availability, a first in almost 20 years. (That includes those fire brigades composed of incarcerated people who get paid about 74 cents an hour for their labor.)

All these factors have contributed to this week’s devastation in LA. What has not played a role are the city’s DEI initiatives—although that didn’t stop some right-wing pundits from claiming otherwise.The right is also placing blame on LAFD Fire Chief Kristin Crowley for prioritizing diverse hiring practices over “filling the fire hydrants properly.” (Just because it’s going to drive me crazy, I need to emphasize that it is not the fire chief’s job to fill the goddamn fire hydrants.)

Activists often remind us that all of our struggles are interconnected. A fire in California does not exist in a vacuum; it lives in concert with a number of other political issues—none more so than climate change and how our leaders respond to it…or fail to do so.

AND:

• Today every living president gathered at the memorial service for former president Jimmy Carter, who died last month at the age of 100. Carter was eulogized by President Biden, who noted that the beloved former president “saw well into the future.” As his grandson, Jason Carter, said, “Fifty years ago he was a climate warrior who pushed for a world where we conserved energy, limited emissions and traded our reliance on fossil fuels for expanded renewable sources.”

PRESIDENTS CLINTON, BUSH, OBAMA, TRUMP, AND BIDEN, ALONG WITH THEIR SPOUSES AND VICE PRESIDENTS GORE, PENCE, AND HARRIS AT THE FUNERAL SERVICE FOR PRESIDENT JIMMY CARTER. (VIA GETTY IMAGES) 

• Yesterday, the bathroom ban in the House of Representatives went into effect. (Just a reminder that this year, Congress swore in its first openly trans congresswoman, Rep. Sarah McBride, who will not be allowed to use any “single-sex facilities” on the Hill that do not align with her “biological sex.”) Allison Chapman, a legislative researcher, told Truthout, “Transgender people have been working on the Hill for years and their bathroom usage has never been an issue. This rule is clearly an attempt to retaliate against Rep. McBride for her status as a transgender person. Unfortunately, all transgender people working and visiting in the House are now caught in the crosshairs of this hostile rule.”

• This week, Secretary of State Antony Blinken accused a paramilitary group in Sudan of committing genocide. The group, Rapid Support Forces, has been locked in a civil war with the Sudanese military since 2023. The war has displaced more than 11 million people, according to UN figures, and triggered widespread famine. An estimated 150,000 people have been killed, and women have been relentlessly targeted. This is only the eighth time in modern history that the U.S. government has declared a genocide. (Notably, the genocide in Gaza did not make that list).

• The Girl Scouts will be retiring two cookie flavors at the end of the 2025 cookie season. Now before you get nervous, let me comfort you by saying the best flavor, Trefoils, is safe. On the chopping block are the Toast-Yay! and S’mores. Their retirement will reportedly “lead to something new and delicious,” a spokesperson told NPR. We’ll be the judge of what’s delicious! (If you’re looking to order some cookies but don’t have a local troop, here is a list of trans and non-binary scouts from 2024.)

• On this week’s episode of UNDISTRACTED, Brittany Packnett Cunningham is asking the question on all of our minds: What has gone wrong with men? Journalists Liz Plank and Anand Giridharadas have a few answers. Listen to the full conversation here!

WEEKEND READING 📚

On being the “other” mother: A woman who chose surrogacy reflects on the thorny relationship it created—and where it left them when tragedy struck. (Electric Literature)

On justice deferred: A “horrendous” sexual assault trial in Alaska has been delayed more than 70 times in the last 10 years. Here’s how similar slowdowns have become routine in the state. (ProPublica)

On “Mas Fotos”: Bad Bunny’s sixth album has become more than just an album. Julianne Escobedo Shepherd dives into the deeper meanings of the artist’s “textured love letter to Puerto Rico’s Indigenous and homegrown musical styles.” (Hearing Things)

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