The Witness Chronicles, 1/9/25
The politicalization of disaster
Fires
The first great urban climate apocalypse is happening now
This morning they held a public funeral service in DC for Jimmy Carter, our most human president. He was the first president I voted for as a young man and I was a fan, especially after the chaos of Nixon and Vietnam. But he had the misfortune to get elected during the worst energy crisis ever.
It’s hard to comprehend that time if you didn’t live through it. 15% mortgages, high inflation, and high gas prices if you could even get it. And all of us driving around in gas guzzling boats, spoiled by gas that was practically free by today’s standards.
Which is why Carter became our first leader to openly acknowledge that geo-political and climate issues around fossil fuels were going to be a serious problem. He put solar panels on the White House, which he was ridiculed for by the Republican establishment. His successor Ronald Reagan had them removed.
Jimmy Carter was also our last president to focus on climate issues. Which, given the constant terrible news stemming from weather disasters, is almost incomprehensible.
Los Angeles, the City of Angels, is burning. Seasonal Santa Ana winds and drought have combined to turn the fires into monstrous blowtorches swallowing houses and commercial buildings in minutes. Those winds, normally peaking at 50-60 mph, are now gusting over 100 miles per hour, accelerating the fires to points we have not seen before.
After two days the fires are largely uncontained.
Hydrants are drying up as ancient water management systems designed for dealing with house fires can’t sustain the flows needed to fight these kinds of infernos. The winds were so high the first 24 hours that firefighting aircraft could not fly, adding to the explosive growth.
This morning I spoke to a close friend who grew up in Southern California, who now lives in Santa Barbara which is just outside the current fire zone but dangerously close. She has many relatives in and around LA and many have had to evacuate.
As is the norm, our politicians outside of the disaster zone are notably silent. Excepting Donald Trump who claims, with no evidence, that the fires are CA Governor Gavin Newsom’s fault because he blocked the water to save an endangered fish. I don’t know where he gets this stuff because there is not even a shred of truth to it, but he just can’t resist throwing mud at someone fighting to save lives.
For the Republican Party under Trump, natural disasters are only their problem in red states. Blue states like California will likely be on their own under this administration and will have to fight for FEMA aid. The Party members are already slinging mud about fires which are affecting all of the American people, not just the Democratic people.
So far 180,000 people are under evacuation orders in greater LA. And a lot of them are Republicans. These urban fires and the recent hurricanes in the southeast may turn out to be the first of climate disasters on an epic scale not seen before here. As I write this, another fire has broken out in the Hollywood Hills and there will be more. There will need to be some difficult planning decisions to make when it comes to rebuilding.
We simply can’t be rebuilding in danger zones.
We are barely into 2025 and much of the country is still reeling from hurricanes Helene and Milton. And now we have an incoming President who sees disasters as opportunities to attack his perceived enemies. Another reminder that the regular people who elected him mean nothing to him.
On another note, Trump talked through some of the eulogies for Carter today and the whole scene was pretty weird with Pence being there, Melania looking like she’d rather be anywhere else, Trump giving Kamala Harris unfriendly looks, etc.
And today Elon Musk backed away from his claims of cutting $2 trillion from the government, saying it would be harder than he thought (big surprise) and that his target is now $1 trillion. My bet is that he fails completely or simply loses interest. Meanwhile he is randomly insulting foreign leaders, now turning on Britain’s PM, while continuing his bull in a China shop routine.
I’ll be writing more about climate issues as they are rapidly accelerating to the point where the Republican blind eye is going to be harder to maintain. At least I hope so because this is the biggest challenge we will be facing for the rest of our lives and beyond. It’s a very different world out there.
And that, in a nutshell, is the reality about climate issues we will face in the next four years. They’re political on top of the total destruction. But everything is political in this toxic environment and Trump is not yet even officially in office.
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I know that each and every one of us can live only "one day at a time." But as you said, the PoS isn't even in office yet and his shit storm has started.