LA wildfires show that those who deny climate change are putting us all at risk

With Donald Trump about to become US President, Labour must live up to their promises on climate change

Watching the scenes of devastation unfold on our TV screens in recent days made me think again, and much more deeply, about doubts that we are doing enough to protect our planet.

Firstly, I couldn’t believe how mild it was on Christmas day. Then last week, temperatures in Altnaharra in Sutherland dropped to minus 14.5C while we are being warned to expect the coldest temperatures in two decades.

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But those doubts, that the problems in our climate are beginning to accelerate, were brought into sharp focus as I watched one of the world’s biggest and wealthiest cities being devastated, much of it reduced to ashes by wildfires.

Those fires in themselves are not unheard of in California. But on this scale, at this time of year? That is unprecedented.

A wildfire engulfs a home in the Pacific Palisades area of Los Angeles earlier this week (Picture: Apu Gomes)A wildfire engulfs a home in the Pacific Palisades area of Los Angeles earlier this week (Picture: Apu Gomes)
A wildfire engulfs a home in the Pacific Palisades area of Los Angeles earlier this week (Picture: Apu Gomes) | Getty Images

A historic disaster

Tens of thousands of people have received orders to evacuate their homes in what I now believe history may record as a disaster on the same scale as the San Francisco earthquake of 1906, or the Boxing Day Tsunami which hit South-East Asia.

And this time there are growing and justifiable fears that this is a catastrophe which mankind has brought upon ourselves. California has experienced an extreme weather pendulum, bouncing between drought and heavy rainfall.

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The rain allowed the grass and shrubbery to grow, before becoming parched and tinder-dry, thanks to the dry period at the end of last year.

It is a near-perfect example of what scientists call “whiplash conditions”, which a study out last week, entitled “Hydroclimate volatility on a warming Earth”, shows is on an upswing across the world as a result of climate change. Wildfires, floods, landslides and disease outbreaks are all predicted consequences.

What we are seeing in California is the latest and perhaps most frightening manifestation of that phenomenon we have already seen in Australia, Europe and even here at home. Back-to-back hurricanes in America, flooding in Africa and Spain.

Record-breaking heat

Current conversations and media coverage about which LA celebrities’ homes have been destroyed are understandable, perhaps, but uncomfortable too for those of us with family or friends in the city.

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Yet I completely understand it makes it seem more relatable for many people and reinforces the fact that fame, wealth, and American know-how in one of the world’s richest cities is powerless against nature.

A home destroyed is a home destroyed. Any life lost is a tragedy. What we must hope to salvage from the embers of this tragedy is the realisation that we must do more to tackle climate change. That those who deny its veracity are putting us all at risk.

UK emissions are now only about 1 per cent of the global total, though we still make the top 20. According to a number of agencies, last year was the first to breach 1.5C of global warming, as we face consequences of climate change we should have expected, but have not prepared for.

In the election campaign, Labour told us “by being climate leaders at home… we’ll restore the strong global leadership needed to tackle the climate crisis”. With Trump about to be ensconced, we have to hope this time they meant what they said.

Christine Jardine is Liberal Democrat MP for Edinburgh West

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