The scariest thing about the LA fire

The LA fires were caused by a complex mix of factors, some of which were global and some of which were local. But the response to the fires in the media, and especially social media, has me extremely concerned about how we will talk about natural disasters intensified by climate change for the foreseeable future.

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Some stock footage courtesy of Getty.
Edited by Luke Negus.

The LA fires continue to burn, but why? Were the fired caused by climate change or incompetent Democratic politicians? Why does the way we talk about climate intensified natural disasters matter? All this and more in this analysis of the LA fires.

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[incognitotorpedo]

Everyone who's lived in SoCal for a long time can tell you that we never used to get Santa Anas at this time of year. We used to get rain at this time of year. I think the scariest thing about the fires is the firestorm of lies that followed them.

[Argosh]

In the last 30 years we have constructed a system of communication that is inherently hostile to human survival.
It's kinda crazy how we managed to get this donkey up this minaret so far.

[Senthiuz]

On fire hydrants running dry, it's apparently fairly common for a house buring down to cause a significant water leak as pipes crack and melt. So, a whole block burning down can cause a huge drop in pressure, either draining the system or necessitating a shutoff upstream. Fire evacuation procedures calls for people to shut off their water at the mains to prevent this. Many don't out of lack of knowledge, panic during leaving, or people thinking leaving with a running sprinkler will somehow save their house.

[oasntet]

So the reason fire damage worldwide is going down is that there's less burnable land.

I guess you can't have a forest fire if you cut down the forest.

[em]

The 'rapid plant growth' that occurs after drought, followed by heavy rain, is mostly
Seasonal weeds, that need to be managed when they die. They build soil quality short term, and must not be killed using herbicide.
Only long term fix for these areas is building resiliant environment, that can tolerate ups and downs of seasons, and hold water and fertility.

[JasonBob]

As a San Diegan I can say that these Santa Ana winds in January are very unusual. October is when all the major fires I lived through occurred.

[kalkuttadrop]

Something can be made worse by climate change or made more likely by climate change without that literally being the whole story with no other factors. How hard is this to get for some people?

[TheGreatBlumpkin]

I’ve lived in Los Angeles 43 years. This was the result of bad forestry and water management made worse by climate change

[mikelacross]

I know someone who works quite high up in insurance & his climate research & advice to not insure many areas earned him 23 million a couple of years ago, I suspect he's going to receive a much bigger bonus every time we have another disaster like this. All of the big money is working against us these days!

[jitteryjet]

In my opinion it was a "perfect storm" of conditions. And Global Warming is increasing the chance of perfect storms. Anecdotally I heard that it was the first time many of those neighbourhoods were affected by fire and they are by no means new neighbourhoods; this implies something has changed.

[AnkurShah]

Excellent video Simon🎉
Loved the statistical analysis included here!
I’m also conducting a fire extent and burned area mapping project with a team and plan to release a video soon on it.

[michaelh]

Short version: Climate change leads to more adverse weather conditions, leading to more property damage, leading to more expensive/impossible to find insurance, leading to lower property values, leading to economic collapse

[Tutbjun]

Someone should sue social media companies on grounds of systematic misinformation. It's their choice of platform rules that is the root cause; they are liable, and they should face justice. In my opinion :) Great video Simon!

[cebo]

I have a saying:
> If someone tries to answer a complex question with a simple answer instead of "sometimes", "maybe", "it's complicated" or "it depends", then it's a bad answer.

[Zappygunshot]

"This fire was caused by climate change" vs "this fire was caused by politicians"
They're the same picture.

[BooBaddyBig]

I suspect that the real reason this happened was building codes and adherence to them. These buildings simply should not have been so very flammable.

[sejnb]

Geoengineering operations are not only completely cutting off precipitation from the US West and destroying the ozone layer globally, the desiccant particulates from the fallout create an incendiary dust that coats foliage and structures.

[shashooitznc]

This is truly terrifying and frustrating, thank you for continually speaking up about this.

[jimhood]

Thanks for the video. I'm glad to hear a reasoned explanation for why the short sound bite video format is completely inadequate to address complex issues. Unfortunately it needs agreement from policy makers on both sides not to cynically exploit this new normal for information exchange. I hope wise heads prevail but I'm not hopeful at the moment.

[cmskfry]

The bel-Air fire in LA which occurred in 1961 burned 500 homes, many of which were celebrity homes during the Santa Ana winds. CoCal has experienced high winds and fires before Europeans settled there in the 1500's