According to Mehr reporter, the deadliest fire in the history of Los Angeles has claimed at least 25 lives by January 15, 2025. Meanwhile, a large number of people are also missing. The series of deadly fires in the Los Angeles area continues. On the other hand, more than 12 thousand structures have been destroyed. Also, according to officials, about 88,000 residents of the Los Angeles area have been ordered to evacuate. The extent of this fire has attracted the attention of people and experts from all over the world and everyone is somehow looking for the reason for this event.
The politics of playing with Los Angeles fire
Time magazine writes about this: Donald Trump, the new president of the United States, introduced the reason for this disaster to the incompetence of Gwynne Newsom, the governor of the state of California, and Joe Biden. He wrote on the Truth social network: There is no water in the fire tanks. There is no money in the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). This is what Joe Biden has left for me.
Trump also blamed the governor of California for refusing to sign a water restoration statement that caused millions of gallons of water to flow into many parts of California every day from excess melting rain and snow in northern America. However, Biden did not respond. But Newsom Office wrote in a post on X: There is no document called water restoration statement. This is completely fictional. The governor is now focused on protecting the public and providing resources for firefighters, however, he was not wrong about the low water supply. However, the municipality of Los Angeles could not do anything to provide water reserves.
The fire department’s water reservoirs are fed from the Pacific Ocean by three million-gallon reservoirs in the Palisades Hills. However, they were not effective on their own, but had to be supplemented with water carried by firefighting planes, but these planes could not fly due to Santa Ana’s hurricane-force winds. Janice Quinins, head of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Electricity, said at a news conference that the demand for water is four times greater than what we have ever seen in the system, but there are much more important factors influencing the event that have to do with the politics of the Games. And they are not ready for emergency institutions, but they are related to the nature of climate change on earth.
Unfavorable winds cause ash
Guy Megley, Director of the School of Climate Studies at the University of Stellenbosch in South Africa, told the Daily Maverick: “I don’t think it’s too early to associate this event with developments related to climate change.” Even several elements in this incident indicate that climate change is the main cause of its occurrence, including strong winds, heat, late onset of precipitation and extensive drought in California. The impact of climate change from this event is clear and undeniable.
He explains that the natural fires are due to a combination of prolonged droughts, loss of vegetation as a result of the hottest year on Earth, little winter rainfall in the Mediterranean region, and strong Santa Ana winds, which also form have been affected by climate change.
Santa Ana winds are a type of katabatic winds that result from high pressure systems that compress and heat air as it descends from the mountains toward the coast. This air compression and overheating leads to hot winds that may worsen the fire situation.
Mijli states that pressure variables cause these winds to intensify due to global warming. On the other hand, the polar vortex is disintegrating due to warming, leading to strange weather patterns, including high-speed winds and more dangerous conditions. In this regard, he adds: the high winds of Santa Ana came down from the San Gabriel Mountains and accelerated in the valley. In fact, their speed reached 150 kilometers per hour. California, like other regions with a Mediterranean climate, usually experiences precipitation in the winter, but this precipitation has decreased drastically in recent years.
Peter Johnston, a researcher of climate and meteorology at the University of Cape Town, also says in this regard: Weather forecasts in recent years show that the areas that are supposed to receive rain in winter will probably have drier and warmer weather instead of rain. face
The report of the sixth assessment of 2021 by the IPCC also warned that climate change will increase the intensity and number of fires in the Mediterranean region.
The California fire is the result of the collapse of the earth
Meanwhile, the climate change crisis seems to be producing more and more storms and causing massive damage, damage that lawmakers and leaders around the world can’t fix.
In fact, the earth’s metabolism is disabled due to the amount of greenhouse gases and more measures than game politics are needed to correct the situation. Another fact that should be taken into account is that solving the problem requires understanding and, equally important, accepting “science”. Only at this time can policies and protocols be implemented that reduce the possibility of a crisis.
Experts have proven for a long time that climate change will intensify fires, and on the other hand, due to global warming, drought, continued heat, loss of vegetation, and the occurrence of strong winds will worsen. All of these lead to uncontrollable fire tabs.
Nova Dieffenbach, a meteorologist at Stanford University, told ABC News: “What we have in front of us is a clear proof of the impact of climate change on global warming, not only on the entire earth, but specifically on the southern California region.” We know that weather conditions and strong winds increase the risk of fire spreading.
Climate changes caused by human activities and greenhouse gas emissions have made the state of California drier and hotter, and on the other hand, it has made it easier for fires to start and spread.
2024 and breaking the heat record
This is just one of the reasons cited in a report by the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Agency. This report was published on January 10, 2025, and Los Angeles was burning at the same time. According to this report, 2024 is the first year in which the increase in the temperature of the earth’s air exceeds what is mentioned in the Paris Agreement, i.e. 1.5 degrees Celsius.
Meanwhile, in southern California, the fire turns everything into ashes at a high speed. This fire broke out while America had a bad year in terms of fires. According to the statistics of the National Interagency Fire Center, more than 38 thousand fires burned an area of more than 7.8 million acres of this country until mid-September 2024.
Although it is not yet clear what exactly is the cause of the fire in Los Angeles, but the main and underlying reasons are related to at least a few decades ago, when the increase in the temperature of the earth accelerated. The temperature of the planet Earth was very high when it was formed, and even now, centuries later, this temperature is still high, with the difference that now the reason for this is the emission of greenhouse gases as a result of burning fossil fuels for a long time.
Peter Kalmus, a climate researcher at NASA’s JPL Laboratory, says: “The planet is still warming, and droughts are becoming more severe in some areas of the world.” Along with increasing temperature, these droughts lead to frequent and severe fires in different regions.
Southern California is not a remote area in the world, but it is prone to wildfires, not just because of the drought, but because of the persistence of the event. According to Jonathan Orpack, dean of the School of Climate at the University of Michigan, the American Southwest has been in a drought since 1999. This is the main reason for more fires in this region, as well as throughout the western United States to Canada. On the other hand, strong winds have fueled this.
The world must be smart
Of course, it should be noted that such conditions are not unique to California. Climate change has caused Mediterranean countries including Italy, Spain, Greece, Tunisia and Turkey, along with Australia, to all face similar fire risks as a result of global warming and dry weather.
Mijli says about this: Mediterranean ecosystems bear a heavy burden. Cities must quickly adapt to new conditions. In this regard, researchers point to the undeniable relevance of climate change and have asked global communities to learn from the event.
Latest Passing over countries : Spain | Dominica | United Arab Emirates
RCO NEWS
