Photo Credit: Mario Tama/Getty Images
According to a statement on the Los Angeles fires by the Labor Network for Sustainability, “The fires are not a natural disaster.”
Wildfires are highly unusual in Southern California in January, which is supposed to be the rainy season. Melting Arctic ice creates changes in the jet stream’s behavior that make wind-driven large wildfires in California more likely. Climate scientists told Yale E360 that with climate change, California’s dry season has extended into early winter when the Santa Ana winds – which bring hot, dry air from the mountains out to sea during the winter months – typically form. The scientist said that this, “is the key climate change connection to Southern California wildfires.” As the atmosphere warms, hotter air evaporates water and can intensify drought more quickly.
According to meteorologist Eric Holthaus writing in The Guardian, the ingredients for these “infernos in the Los Angeles area, near-hurricane strength winds and drought,” foretell “an emerging era of compound events – simultaneous types of historic weather conditions, happening at unusual times of the year, resulting in situations that overwhelm our ability to respond.”
These fires are an especially acute example of something climate scientists have been warning about for decades: compound climate disasters that, when they occur simultaneously, produce much more damage than they would individually. As the climate crisis escalates, the interdependent atmospheric, oceanic and ecological systems that constrain human civilization will lead to compounding and regime-shifting changes that are difficult to predict in advance.
For full statement: https://www.labor4sustainability.org/articles/the-labor-network-for-sustainability-mourns-the-catastrophic-loss-of-life-and-homes-in-california/