Over the Christmas and Hanukkah holiday a couple weeks ago, I was really fortunate to spend a week in Glendale, California with family.
We did a beautiful hike in Glenoaks Canyon (including spotting a young rattler), spotted herons along the Los Angeles River, and took in several exhibits that are part of the PST ART festival where more than 70 institutions and 800 artists came together to share work under the theme “Art & Science Collide”.
Many choose to focus on climate change and our human relationship with nature and the more-than-human world.
That relationship is under a microscope in a big way as heroic fire crews try to manage rapidly changing conditions to put out several wildfires in the Los Angeles area.
Every time California breaks out in fire, I recall sitting on top of my apartment building in Venice in November 2018 with my wife and a friend during the Woolsey Fire. While we were safe save for reduced air quality, the plumes of smoke from Malibu were terrifying. Hearing accounts from frontline volunteers while helping put together relief kits with the Red Cross was heartbreaking.
The Woolsey fire scorched nearly 100,000 acres, destroying nearly 2,000 structures and killing three people.
So far, the Palisades fire (as of 11am central on Sunday January 12) has burned just shy of 24,000 acres and the Eaton just more than 14,000 acres. However, those areas have been more densely populated taking out more than 12,000 structures and killing at least 16 people.
In the face of such immense tragedy, please are looking for answers. Why did this happen?
As I write this, the fact is, that we don’t have an exact cause, despite our former and future president throwing out his own guesses.
We are pretty sure that the intensity of the Santa Ana winds (expected to pick up this week) played a role. We also know that the soil moisture levels in Southern California are at historic lows. And that dry vegetation can act like kindling to flying embers.
One thing is for sure - climate change made these wildfires more likely and more intense.
While we’ll likely not understand the exact formula that led to these fires for a while, it did remind me of a section of Episode 20 of Ecosystem Member with writer, artist and ecological philosopher Obi Kaufmann that I’ve included here as a clip.
The occasion of our chat was Obi’s book “The State of Fire: Why California Burns”. I asked Obi about California’s relationship with fire.
“It’s a very complex problem. By complex, I don’t mean complicated, I mean all complex systems exist on a dancing terrain of variables where emergent phenomena become apparent over space and time. And in California, that’s resulting in these megafires as the parameters of homeostasis are expanding and contracting.”
How to Help
What’s not complex is that people and non-human animals need help. Here’s a few that I recommend if you’re keen to contribute.
Donate to the Pasadena Humane - This organization has taken in hundreds of pet animals lost or abandoned in the rush to escape the fires, many experiencing burns and other injuries. They have also collected and are distributing pet supplies for those who took their non-human animal family members with them as they evacuated and need food that was left behind.
Donate to LA Art World Relief - A group of people including artist Andrea Bowers started a GoFundMe to support Los Angeles-area artists who lost their homes, studios and materials in the wildfires. Art can play such a crucial role in helping us process extreme events and trauma that sending money to this community is more than worth it.
Direct Donations on GoFundMe - I read a social media post that called GoFundMe an insurance company where the deductible is popularity. Find a campaign that maybe isn’t getting as many donations and put your funds there if you can.
Shop at Outerknown - While I am no fan of consumption for consumptions sake, Outerknown (we had John Moore, co-founder, on one of the first episodes of the podcast) is a genuinely responsible Los Angeles-based brand that is donating 100% of proceeds from sales on its website this weekend to the Los Angeles Fire Department Foundation and California Community Foundation-Wildfire Recovery Fund. You were probably going to get a new Blanket Shirt soon anyway.
An Excerpt
“Sometimes when there are natural disasters, hurricanes or tsunamis, people blame the Earth and say she is unkind and vengeful. Yet when the Earth provides rain, rivers and good soil we praise her, recognizing and grateful for all she has given us, and we say that she is kind. However, the idea of kind and unkind are a pair of opposites that originates in our own minds. The Earth is neither kind or unkind. She is there in all her stability and solidity, nourishing us with equanimity and without judgement or discrimination. If we look deeply, we can look at her without judgement and discrimination as well.”
-Thich Nhat Hanh, ‘Love Letter to the Earth’
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