As the wildfires kill ten people, president-elect Donald Trump denies the reality that climate change fuels the Californian fires
California has a history of destructive wildfires (Photo: flickr/ slworking2)
By Camilla Royle
10 January 2025
SOCIALIST WORKER Issue
Two weeks before Donald Trump’s inauguration as United States president, wildfires are ripping through California.
The Los Angeles fire chief reported that the fires had killed two people and had seriously injured many more, including a 25 year old firefighter. More than 1000 homes and other buildings have also been engulfed by flames and tens of thousands of people were ordered to evacuate.
The fires have been whipped up by the strong Santa Ana winds, which blow dry air from the desert towards California. But high temperatures due to climate change are also making fires like these a regular occurrence.
Fires have reached the wealthy residents of the Pacific Palisades neighbourhood. Star Wars actor Mark Hamill and Prince Harry and Meghan Markle were among those affected. And the fire department destroyed up to 200 abandoned cars on the world famous Sunset Boulevard.
While California’s most glamorous residents have watched their mansions burn, the fires could also harm people living more precarious lives.
Los Angeles county is facing a housing crisis. It has 75,000 homeless people, including many who live outside in tent encampments—one of the highest rates anywhere in the US. People living outside are especially at risk from smoke due to wildfires.
In 2020, when Trump was last in office, California was hit by unprecedented fires during an especially hot, dry summer. But Trump denied that climate change was the cause and said that people in California were to blame for not sweeping up leaves from the forest floor.
According to officials in his administration, Trump repeatedly refused to release disaster aid to states he deemed hostile, including the generally Democrat-voting California.
There are fears that he could repeat this in his second term.
Trump has appointed Lee Zeldin as head of the Environmental Protection Agency. Zeldin is a climate sceptic who doesn’t support the agreement to limit temperature rise made at the Paris Cop talks in 2015. He said in 2014, that he was “not sold yet on the whole argument that we have as serious a problem as other people”.
Zeldin is a backer of fossil fuels and cars. When he unsuccessfully ran to be governor of New York, he opposed a ban on fracking, called for more oil and gas pipelines and promised to repeal a tax on petrol.
Trump has said that Zeldin will rip up regulations “to unleash the power of American businesses”.
An American president who denies the reality of climate change is a terrifying prospect after a year of rising temperatures and disasters.
Two weeks before Donald Trump’s inauguration as United States president, wildfires are ripping through California.
The Los Angeles fire chief reported that the fires had killed two people and had seriously injured many more, including a 25 year old firefighter. More than 1000 homes and other buildings have also been engulfed by flames and tens of thousands of people were ordered to evacuate.
The fires have been whipped up by the strong Santa Ana winds, which blow dry air from the desert towards California. But high temperatures due to climate change are also making fires like these a regular occurrence.
Fires have reached the wealthy residents of the Pacific Palisades neighbourhood. Star Wars actor Mark Hamill and Prince Harry and Meghan Markle were among those affected. And the fire department destroyed up to 200 abandoned cars on the world famous Sunset Boulevard.
While California’s most glamorous residents have watched their mansions burn, the fires could also harm people living more precarious lives.
Los Angeles county is facing a housing crisis. It has 75,000 homeless people, including many who live outside in tent encampments—one of the highest rates anywhere in the US. People living outside are especially at risk from smoke due to wildfires.
In 2020, when Trump was last in office, California was hit by unprecedented fires during an especially hot, dry summer. But Trump denied that climate change was the cause and said that people in California were to blame for not sweeping up leaves from the forest floor.
According to officials in his administration, Trump repeatedly refused to release disaster aid to states he deemed hostile, including the generally Democrat-voting California.
There are fears that he could repeat this in his second term.
Trump has appointed Lee Zeldin as head of the Environmental Protection Agency. Zeldin is a climate sceptic who doesn’t support the agreement to limit temperature rise made at the Paris Cop talks in 2015. He said in 2014, that he was “not sold yet on the whole argument that we have as serious a problem as other people”.
Zeldin is a backer of fossil fuels and cars. When he unsuccessfully ran to be governor of New York, he opposed a ban on fracking, called for more oil and gas pipelines and promised to repeal a tax on petrol.
Trump has said that Zeldin will rip up regulations “to unleash the power of American businesses”.
An American president who denies the reality of climate change is a terrifying prospect after a year of rising temperatures and disasters.
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