If you would like to donate to support families through this tough time, you can use this link to do so: https://www.givedirectly.org/lafires/
Since January 7th, 40,000 acres of homes, businesses, and landmarks have been destroyed by both the Palisades and Eaton fires. The devastation of both of these fires are unparalleled, they have quickly taken spots in California’s top 10 most destructive fires, and most costly fires in US history. At the beginning of the Palisades fire more than 120,000 people experienced power outages. In both the Pacific Palisades and Eaton fires, a total of 12,000 homes were either destroyed or damaged. The fires have apparently cost 350 billion dollars in city facilities. Right now, according to Fire Watch, the containment levels for the Palisades fire and Eaton fire are 77% and 95% respectively. Although the Palisades and Eaton fires were the largest of the fires, the most impactful fire in the Calabasas area was the Kenneth fire. The Kenneth fire stretched to 1,052 acres, which in the grand scheme of things wasn’t that big. The Kenneth fire was pretty quickly contained by the LAFD. The California wildfires were incredibly impactful to the residents of LA, over 200,000 residents of LA had to evacuate their homes.
What spread faster, the recent California wildfires or the conspiracies about them? When disasters happen, it is so easy to feel helpless and upset, and as a result point fingers. But in reality, all that this accomplishes is more unrest and divisions amongst people when unity is needed most. Instead of blaming everything that is plausible and many things that aren’t, people should be channeling their emotions into relief efforts and helping one another. This was very evident in the recent fires that took place recently in Southern California. Everything from political parties controlling the weather to claims that Diddy was the cause as he wanted to erase evidence against him has been circled around online, all while victims of the fire desperately need help, and for people to raise awareness about how to help and fire facts, not just wild conspiracies. Here are the 4 most popular conspiracy theories debunked:
- Fires were caused by the prioritizing of DEI (Diversity, equity, and inclusion)
If you have been on social media at all since the fires started then you have likely seen the slogan “0% contained, 100% DEI”. This is being fueled by the fact that LA fire chief Kristin Crowley, who is the first woman and openly LGBTQ+ person to lead the department, and rumors are being spread that she cares more about DEI and that she hires based on diversity, not skill. These rumors have zero evidence, and it simply undermines the hard work she has put in to get to where she is today. No matter what Crowley did, it wouldn’t have changed the dry and windy conditions that spread the fire.
- Jewish people are responsible for the fires – Middle East war caused the fires
Whether it is because they are greedy, hoard things for themselves, or whatever other conspiracy theory, blaming Jews seems to always occur, as yiu may remember Marjorie Taylor Greene a few years ago blaming Jewish Space Lasers for California wildfires. What is new however, is the theory that the fire was started because of karma for the Middle East War. Yes, the one that started on October 7th, not by Israel. On X, one antisemitic influencer posted images of the Pasadena Jewish Temple and Center, which burned down in the Eaton fire, stating, “God is mad at the jews”. This anti-semitic rhetoric is harmful to not just jews, as it brings attention from the real issues at hand that people need to be focusing on.
- The wildfires were started by Hollywood celebrities
This is a popular theory spreading due to the amount of celebrities that lost their homes or almost lost their homes. The most popular theory of why Hollywood celebrities would start fires is that they are trying to erase evidence of being involved in the P.Diddy scandal. This is completely unreasonable and is again just spreading false information instead of what needs to be shared.
- The government started the fires
This is a conspiracy that is so absurd it’s hard to wrap your head around. The theory is that the government can control the weather, and they are destroying California on purpose. The reasons why vary, from trying to rebuild LA, to saying that the Republicans did it to blame the Democrats, and vice versa. THis is simply untrue. The government has so much that it has to fix because of the fires, and losing money is something that they don’t want.
- Protecting… Fish?
This theory was started by President Trump, and it is all explained in this post of his:
“Governor Gavin Newscum refused to sign the water restoration declaration put before him that would have allowed millions of gallons of water, from excess rain and snowmelt from the North, to flow daily into many parts of California, including the areas that are currently burning in a virtually apocalyptic way,” In that post, Trump added that Newsom “wanted to protect an essentially worthless fish called a smelt, by giving it less water (it didn’t work!)” and “he is to blame for this.”
The reality is that California did block Trump’s plan during his first administration to redirect water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta down to farms and cities further south, because environmental groups opposed the plan due to serious concerns over endangered fish called smelt. But, that is NOT the reason the fire hydrants near the Palisades were dry. It was simply because there was such a high demand for water, and California is in a drought, so water needs aren’t met. So this just proves climate change is the cause.
Wildfires require the specific alignment of a number of factors, including temperature, humidity, and the lack of moisture in fuels, such as trees, shrubs, grasses, and forest debris. All these factors are all direct results of climate change creating a hotter, drier environment.
The evidence of this change is overwhelming. We have been seeing a steady increase in global temperature. According to NOAA’s (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) 2023 Annual Climate Report the combined land and ocean temperature has increased at an average rate of 0.11° Fahrenheit (0.06° Celsius) per decade since 1850, or about 2° F in total. The rate of warming since 1982 is more than three times as fast: 0.36° F (0.20° C) per decade. This rate of change is not stable. It’s increasing. As we burn more oil and more fossil fuels more efficiently it’s going to go up. To put it into perspective, (assuming the rate of increase stays the same) every 1ºc the earth goes up, the median burned area per year could go up 600%. That means that for sophomores like ourselves, when we turn 47 or 46, the burned area could multiply 6 times or more.
This can also be seen in a helpful graph.
This graphic from the Fourth National Climate Assessment shows the growth in large wildfires throughout the West. The black lines are fitted trend lines. Statistically significant at a 10% level for all regions except the Snake Plain/Columbian Plateau, Basin and Range, and Mediterranean California regions.
Warmer conditions don’t just make plants easier to burn, they can also help with the proliferation of insects that help make areas more susceptible to fires. This can be seen in the mountain pine beetle that can weaken or kill trees, building up the fuels in a forest.
We have a history of big wildfires and we have done little to change.Until we stop growing even hotter this rate of fire will Increase. I will let you off with this graph of acres burned in California. The Increase is obvious.
