đ©The "Extreme Red Flag" That's Extremely Bad For CA's Poor
CA's wildfires keep happening. Consequences of the blaze are not borne equally.
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TOPLINE
10 wildfires currently burning in CA, last week Natâl Weather Service issued first-ever âextreme red flagâ warning
Rich/poor divide means some can afford private fire brigades while others sleep on the streets and inhale ash
Stateâs homeless, prisoners among those who pay biggest price for global-warming induced wildfires
If for some inexplicable reason you were still waiting for a red flag before begin convinced that the climate crisis was real, manmade, and happening, California is waving one right in your face.
Last week, with fires burning up and down the state, the National Weather Service issued its first-ever âextreme red flagâ warning. CA is currently battling at least 10 individual wildfires. So-called âdevil windsâ threaten to fan the flames and spread the inferno around Southern California, while north of the Bay Area, the Kincade Fire raged across over 76,000 acres and destroyed 370+ structures before firefighters finally hemmed it in last night.
The Kincade Fire, and other blazes like it, demonstrate just how existential the effects of climate change are getting for Californians. A July 2019 study found that CA wildfires have increased 5x since the early Seventies, and scientists have thoroughly and repeatedly linked the uptick to global warming.
Longtime climate journalist and author Bill McKibben argues the Golden Stateâs predicament is a harbinger of the sustained climate disruption we can all expect:
Californians â always shirtsleeved and cool â spend some of the year in face masks and much of it with a feeling of trepidation. As with so many things, they are going first where the rest of us will follow.
Thereâs plenty of nuance to this issue, but donât fall for the bunk argument that wildfires are purely the consequence of improperly managing forests. Alas, our climate change-denying president seems to like this explanation, despite (because of?) the fact that itâs often made by bad-faith actors that work for think-tanks funded by the fossil-fuel industry. Plus itâs something to tweet about, which:
Owning the Libs by *checks notes* trolling the most populous state in America on social media while itâs literally on fire. Nice! CA Gov. Gavin Newsom had a pretty appropriate response, for whatever thatâs worth. (Luv 2 b governed by Twitter feud.)
Wildfires are bad news for regular âshirt-sleeved and coolâ middle-class people who arenât loaded enough to afford private fire brigades or find $1 million out-of-pocket to augment the $1 million home insurance check they got for a rebuild. But theyâre REALLY bad news for those Californians who donât have the money and mobility to escape the consequences, people for whom the American dream has always rung hollow and lately become downright nightmarish.
Like, for example, the stateâs homeless population, one of the largest in the country. When wildfires break out (as theyâre wont to do, because, again: climate change) CA officials typically instruct residents to stay indoors to avoid inhaling all that particulate sent skyward by flame.
Itâs a common-sense directive that seems downright cruel when you remember that âindoorsâ is the thing many homeless people desperately want but donât have.
So instead, you get people like David Ewing, a homeless person with a cancer diagnosis who rode out the 2017 wildfires sleeping behind a department store in Santa Barbara:
When I woke up yesterday I couldn't breathe⊠This stuff is just wiping me out.
Or Lisa Cooper, who was lucky enough to get some free masks from a San Francisco shelter in 2018 when record-setting blazes in the area blanketed the city in a shroud of dangerous particulate matter. She stayed awake for four days but eventually fell asleep on the street, at which point someone jacked those masks, leaving her stranded:
Right now, itâs hard to exhale and inhale fully.
For any neocon cynics in the crowd who are wary of offering even an OUNCE of compassion for societyâs cast-offs, consider this: around 25% of all homeless veterans in the country call California home. Do you Respect The Troopsâąïž? Then I regret to inform you that you are actually obligated care about how wildfires are affecting homeless Californians.
(Unless of courseâand this is crazy, but bear with meâthe whole âNever Kneelâ/thank-you-for-your-service schtick has just been convenient cover for ethical bankruptcy, selfishness, and hypocrisy. What?! No, canât be.)
Meanwhile, among the brave firefighters battling the Kincade blaze are inmates from CA prisons. This is nothing new; the Golden State, like many others, has long tapped incarcerated people to do dangerous labor for low or no pay. CA actually recently increased the wage it offers prisoners in its âfire campâ program, from $2/hr to $5.12/hr. (Entry-level CalFire employees make $14/hr; the state saves $90-100 million a year using prison labor.)
Still, corrections officials are having trouble getting inmates to run into literal infernos. Maybe itâs because theyâre offering a Big Mac an hour, and the training inmates receive doesnât even guarantee theyâll be qualified for real jobs with CalFire once theyâre released from prison? (The state finally passed a law aimed at correcting this monstrous trick last year.)
Or maybe, as state officials argue, itâs because prison reform efforts have lately pared down the available souls behind bars. The horror.
Either way, firefighters (inmates and otherwise) appear to be slowly winning the battle against the Kincade Fire. But there are other wildfires springing up right this very instant, and the National Interagency Fire Center is predicting more risk for âsignificantâ blazes through January 2020.
ACTIONS
DONATE: The California Wildfire Relief Fund has distributed post-fire aid to Californians in need since 2003.
REACH OUT: If youâre a Heat Beater in California whoâs been affected by one of this yearâs wildfires, and youâd like to share your experience on The Heat Beat, email me: dave@dinfontay.com
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Want to send me a tip, comment, or other feedback? Email me: dave@dinfontay.com. I love hearing from you! (Most of you, at least.)