
By Anders Lorenzen
The Southern California wildfires, burning on their sixth day since emerging on the 7th of January and have devastated large parts of Greater Los Angeles (LA), are set to be the state’s largest and most extreme weather event ever recorded.
At the time of writing, the wildfires have claimed the lives of 16 people, a number that the Governor of California Gavin Newsom and US President Joe Biden have said would most certainly increase, alongside the over $50 billion figure that the banking and insurance giant JP Morgan has estimated the cost to be currently. So far, roughly 36,685 hectares (ha) have burned.
The drought
California has experienced a long-running drought since 2007, which has only been lifted briefly. Days before, the mega-wildfire broke out, which was a merging of several isolated fires. Days before the start of the fires on January 4th, climate scientist David Swain published an article that warned that a combination of ongoing drought conditions alongside intense wind conditions wildfires would be likely.
While several mismanagement factors could be blamed for California’s drought, climate change is the main culprit. However, agriculture’s high water footprint, especially wine and almond crops, private swimming pools, and gardens in the areas where celebrity mansions are located, has also contributed.
But despite this, the Republican establishment, including the Trump team as well as some media publications, have decided it is the fault of Democrats and the governing of the state. Within claims of such things as cutting the budget to some governmental departments, various conspiracy theories have been flying around to put all the blame on Newsom and the Democratic Party and no mention of climate change.
While the fires are still ongoing and the cause is being investigated, it is fair to say that climate change fueled this extreme weather event, which local authorities say is the worst wildfire in California‘s history. To what extent will we only know after a careful investigation?
Climate-denying Republicans who, in a week, will control the presidency, the House and the Senate and who have already pledged to undo and weaken national, state and local climate policies and laws will not want to entertain the idea that climate change has played some role and are instead painting a very black and white image it has only happened due to Democratic mismanagement.
The climate science is robust and transparent: the next a US wildfire develops into a majority event that may even be in a Republican state, will Republicans stick to the same attack line, or will they start to do things that deal with the issue in hand; the burning of fossil fuels?