Analysis: 5 Ways to Look at the Los Angeles Fires Through the Lens of Climate Realism
January 12, 2025 | Source: PBS News | by Varun Sivaram, Council on Foreign Relations
The wildfires raging through Southern California neighborhoods from the Pacific Palisades to Pasadena are horrifying and tragic. I feel profound sadness for my friends who have lost homes and businesses. My own connection to the Palisades neighborhood began twelve years ago almost to the day, when in my first act as a Los Angeles public official, I joined the Department of Water and Power to inaugurate a solar installation at the Palisades Pit Stop car wash subsidized by the city. That car wash now appears to be within the active fire zone.
Although these wildfires have intensely local effects, they are attributable, at least to a small degree, to global climate change caused by the greenhouse gas emissions of major economies around the world.