Los Angeles is burning. Fossil fuel companies laid the kindling. Soon the world will stop caring.I’m sorry for sounding callous, but it’s true.You’ve probably seen the headlines, the photos, the evacuation maps. At least 25 people dead, more than 12,000 homes and other buildings destroyed, tens of billions of dollars in damage and losses. Maybe you or your family or friends were forced to flee. Maybe the monstrous winds kept you awake late into the night, full of terror.NewsletterYou’re reading Boiling Point Sammy Roth gets you up to speed on climate change, energy and the environment. Sign up to get it in your inbox twice a week. Enter email address You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times. This is what climate chaos looks like.There was no coal baron who lighted the matches. No oil driller who dried out the terrain, priming Southern California to burn. No gas executive who decided to build residential neighborhoods in already fire-prone landscapes.But a global economy built on fossil fuels — and a U.S. political establishment funded in great part by fossil fuel corporations and their allies — brought us to this point. After two wet winters fueled the growth of grasses and brush — ideal kindling for fires — across SoCal mountains and hillsides, the last few months saw an abrupt shift to record-dry conditions. This kind of weather whiplash is a hallmark of global warming.Add explosive Santa Ana winds to the mix, and it’s a recipe for apocalyptic infernos.Stepping out of my West L.A. apartment last week — wearing an N95 mask to avoid inhaling too many unhealthy particles — I was horrified by the gray-orange gloom from the Palisades fire blotting out much of the sky. My wife and I were soon inundated by calls and texts: You guys OK? Anything we can do to help? Meanwhile, I read about oil giant Exxon Mobil suing California’s attorney general, Rob Bonta, arguing Bonta has damaged the company’s reputation by accusing it of falsely promoting plastic recycling. I read about the nation’s largest financial institutions leaving the banking sector’s biggest climate coalition in the run-up to President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration. I read about Trump falsely accusing Gov. Gavin Newsom of somehow causing the fires.Meanwhile, our cousin in the Hollywood Hills fled her home. Friends in Pacific Palisades lost theirs.It’s awful. It’s infuriating. And it’s not going to stop the climate crisis.The Palisades fire burns in the distance, as seen from the Santa Monica Pier on Jan. 7.(Marcus Ubungen / Los Angeles Times) For many Angelenos, this is our most jarring confrontation yet with global warming. But hundreds of millions of Americans have faced fossil-fueled disasters, and the politics of climate obstruction have hardly budged.There was the 2018 Camp fire, which killed 85 people and leveled the Northern California town of Paradise. And the 2021 Pacific Northwest heat dome,
Mer. Gen 15th, 2025
