California Fires Signal Need for Climate Action

Western wildfires have been growing more intense, culminating this year in the deadliest blaze in California’s history. Climate change is driving this trend.

A car passes through flames as the Carr Fire burns
 in Shasta, California. U.S. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke
 has falsely suggested that more logging would help
 prevent the devastating fires raging across the West.

With increasingly hot weather and deeper droughts, forests are becoming drier and prone to burning throughout the year. Over the past 30 years, climate change has doubled the area affected by forest fires in the western U.S., according to a study that appeared in the 2016 Proceedings of the National Academies of Sciences. Fifteen out of the 20 worst fires in California's history have occurred since 2000.

As Daniel Berlant, assistant deputy director of CAL FIRE, California’s fire agency, told the New York Times: “Let’s be clear. It’s our changing climate that is leading to more severe and destructive fires.”

At Earthjustice, we’re fighting for a swift and just transition away from fossil fuels towards 100 percent clean energy. California recently committed to 100 percent clean energy by 2045. The rest of the country must follow its lead to safeguard our health, homes, and economy from these disasters.

But instead of adopting policies that could reduce the risks of extreme weather for hundreds of millions of people, the Trump administration has seized the destruction across the West as an opportunity to help line the pockets of special interests and push for more logging in our forests.

Read the story from EarthJustice by Blaine Miller-McFeeeley - “California Fires Signal Need for Climate Action.”