Environmentalism and the Los Angeles Fires
The fires in Los Angeles have been the most devastating in the city’s history. A full account of the causes of the conflagration can’t be attempted here, but in this week’s column, I’d like to talk about the responsibility of environmentalism for what happened.
By “environmentalism,” I mean a movement that is hostile to human beings, their private homes, and to industrial growth. Some of its advocates want to do away with people altogether. Instead, environmentalists want to preserve the natural world in its pristine purity.
In Los Angeles and its surrounding communities, there is an abundance of lush vegetation. Further, there is usually very little rain during the fall and winter seasons. LA does get some rain in the spring, but as Coim Toibin remarks, “In the spring, the rain makes the scrub and the brush grow stronger so when they get dry later in the year they are liable to burn more strongly.” This problem is exacerbated by fierce Santa Ana winds that can rapidly spread any fire that has started.
In order to cope with these difficult circumstances, it is necessary to follow a policy of controlled burning. According to David Stockman, “The failure to do just such controlled burns is exactly what is behind the LA wildfire today. That is, a dramatically larger human footprint in the fire-prone shrub-lands and chaparral (dwarf trees) areas along the coasts has increased the risk residents will start fires, accidentally or otherwise. California’s population doubled from 1970 to 2020, from about 20 million people to nearly 40 million people, and nearly all of the gain was in the coastal areas.
Under those conditions, California’s strong, naturally-occurring winds, which crest periodically, as is occurring at the moment, are the main culprit which fuels and spreads the human-set blazes in the shrub-lands. The Diablo winds in the north of the state and the Santa Ana winds in the south can actually reach hurricane force, as has also been the case this week. As the winds move West over California
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