L.A. Fires Show Limits of America’s Efforts to Cope With Climate Change

The New York Times ^ | Jan. 10, 2025Updated 3:44 p.m. ET | Christopher Flavelle

[E. Pluribus Unum]

California has focused on fortifying communities against wildfires. But with growing threats, that may not be enough.

This week’s fires around Los Angeles present a puzzle: Why is California, the state best equipped to deal with wildfires, seemingly unable to prevent blazes from consuming entire chunks of the country’s second-largest city?

California’s building code for wildfires is among the most protective in the nation. Its local fire departments are backed up by CalFire, the state fire agency, which has a $4 billion budget and some of the best trained firefighters in the world. The state’s huge tax base generates effectively unlimited resources for wildfire protection. And California has mandatory statewide requirements that homeowners in risky areas create “defensible space” around their property — rules that other Western states would like to apply but can’t because it would anger conservative voters.

Yet the events of this week demonstrate the limits of those efforts, raising uncomfortable questions about whether any part of the United States — even the wealthiest, best prepared and most experienced — can truly adapt to wildfires made worse by a hotter climate.

“Climate change, and climate events, are causing us to butt up against that limit,” said Joshua Saks, the adaptation program director for Georgetown Climate Center at Georgetown University Law Center in Washington. “The risk will always grow, and at some point outpace what you’ve done.”

Part of the extensive damage from the fires in Los Angeles may reflect errors in planning or execution. Fire hydrants designed to fight house fires ran dry, as water reserves faced greater demand than officials anticipated. It’s not clear that residents had sufficient warning or that evacuation routes were well planned. The second-guessing and questions about accountability have already begun even as the fires...

[Savage Beast]

"We can evade reality, but we cannot evade the consequences of evading reality."
Ayn Rand

[Honorary Serb]

Once again, the NYT fits the news to print in its scandal sheet!

[wetgundog]

Climate Change still a steaming pile....

[iamgalt]

Using this catastrophe to further the hoax is evil on another level.

[SecondAmendment]

So this is the time for politics then ...

[Jonny7797]

Nice try NYTs. Liberal policies contributed to this destruction more than anything else by a long shot.

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

Insane Green Wokeism.

LOOK AT THE GOOD SIDE OF IT! The Smelt fish are doing well now the reservoirs and dams once used for fire suppression, have been destroyed and drained. and the brush was for nesting birds and ground animals so the Greenies could go out and commune with Mother Nature!
Now Mother Nature has bit them in the butt big time. And where is the LA mayor> In Ghana Africa weeping at the slave pens, wailing at the Door of no Return and blubbering about how terrible the US is. But when her tax payer paid vacation is over she will hop on an air conditioned jet and return to the land she hates.

[dljordan]

” I read somewhere that the LAPD refused to press charges against a man caught red-handed starting a fire.”

They said they didn’t have probable cause. Caught him with a propane torch.

[one guy in new jersey]

Hockey-stick wielding Penn State Prof Michael Mann has now officially been caught with his pants around his ankles, BITH unwilling to provide his raw so-called “climate change” data for independent scientific scrutiny, and thus pitifully unable to prove reputational harm by his interlocutor Mark Steyn despite a decade or so of accusations and litigation.

Can we please just call all this a sham, and move on?

[old school]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1TaEo2suLyM

[Cobra64]

The latest, left wing mantra: “Non functioning Fire hydrants are caused by climate change.”

[Danie_2023]

“California has focused on fortifying communities against wildfires.”

That’s another blatant lie. Nothing could be further from the truth... as has just been PROVEN by the ongoing LA fires. And no, it has nothing to do with “”climate change””. So sick of the leftist BS.

[BookmanTheJanitor]

Why is California, the state best equipped to deal with wildfires, seemingly unable to prevent blazes from consuming entire chunks of the country’s second-largest city?

Answer: leftist Democrats

[Vermont Lt]

I’ve said this before. If the winds you are fighting against have “names” and people know them…then this is not a recent phenomenon. The winds have been tearing through these places for ten thousand years or more.

The difference isn’t “climate change”…it’s people and poor land management.

[antidemoncrat]

The New York Slimes BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARFs up more bullshit.

[blitz128]

Massive massive name shifting there, almost unbelievable but it is the left so up is down and exercising caused by climate change
Oh and kamel toe ran a flawless campaign

[Vaduz]

A +

[Peter ODonnell]

Editorial Shows Limits of Liberals’ Efforts to Cope with Logical Reasoning

[Dick Bachert]

ROTFLMAO!!!

[Pearfect]

The con OR LYING CLOWNS ?