California fires prove reality of climate crisis driven by global warming

Fire crews battle the Kenneth Fire in the West Hills section of Los Angeles, Thursday, Jan. 9, 2025. Insurance companies, recognizing the reality of global warming, are refusing to insure homeowners in areas like this that are ravaged by wildfires. | Ethan Swope/AP

The recent California wildfire outbreak is merely the latest in an episodic sequence of worsening disasters. These calamities, however, seem insufficient to dispel the willful ignorance of the fossil fuel industry and its cabal of climate deniers. These forces have profit-driven incentive to turn a blind eye to the cost of climate change – a price often paid in human life. Unfortunately, the Trump administration has given them the green light to continue their policies by, among other moves, approving almost unlimited drilling and fracking by energy companies and freezing federal support for many clean energy programs.

The death toll from the fires in the Golden State has so far risen to 24, as fire outbreaks are still being contained amidst a resurgence of powerful winds. The intensification of these kinds of blazes is irrefutable: rising temperatures and prolonged droughts have created arid conditions, and in 2024, California experienced some of the most devastating wildfires in its history, resulting in significant loss of life and property. Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom remarked that these fires could represent the costliest disaster in U.S. history, with economic damages exceeding $250 billion.

The state is a glaring symptom of a global issue. The years 2023 and 2024 were recorded as possibly the hottest years in civilized history. In 2024, Earth’s average surface temperature was 2.30 degrees Fahrenheit above NASA’s 20th century baseline, surpassing the previous record set in the year prior. It’s an unprecedented reminder of global warming’s accelerating pace.

“Once again, the temperature record has been shattered,” said NASA administrator Bill Nelson. “2024 was the hottest year since record keeping began in 1880. Between record-breaking temperatures and wildfires currently threatening our centers and workforce in California, it has never been more important to understand our changing planet.”

The New York Times ran an article today on floods and climate change that documents increases in the strength of storms in the Mediterranean Sea, caused by global warming. Scientists, the article notes, expect that situation to worsen.

“The Paris Agreement on climate change sets forth efforts to remain below 1.5 degrees Celsius over the long term,” said Gavin Schmidt, director of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) in New York. “To put that into perspective, temperatures during the warm periods on Earth three million years ago – when sea levels were dozens of feet higher than today – were only around 3 degrees Celsius warmer than pre-industrial levels. We are halfway to Pliocene-level warmth in just 150 years.”

Again, unfortunately, President Trump withdrew the U.S. this week from participation in the Paris Agreement and has sent a letter to that effect to the United Nations.

Nevertheless, recent actions by one of the most powerful industries in the U.S. reflect how seriously powerful groups are actually taking climate change.

Insurance companies know the reality

Conservative and corporate forces looking to spread the message that climate change is nothing more than baseless fearmongering – a claim that flies in the face of substantiated scientific evidence – might struggle to explain why, then, the insurance market in California is imploding. The escalating risk of fires there has caused major insurers, including State Farm, to stop accepting new applications for business and personal casualty insurance in the state, citing rapidly growing catastrophe exposure and a challenging reinsurance market. This has left many home owners in high-risk areas without adequate coverage, forcing them to rely on the state’s FAIR program, which offers limited – often insufficient – protection.

FAIR (Fair Access to Insurance Requirements Plan) is a state-mandated insurance resource designed to provide basic property insurance coverage to homeowners who aren’t able to secure insurance through the traditional private market. It’s very much a last resort for property owners in high-risk areas, because its rates can be exorbitant, making it difficult for workingclass people.

Even the FAIR program itself has expressed concerns about growing liabilities as wildfires grow deadlier and more prevalent. When one considers that the state has had over 15,000 fires between 2021 and 2023 alone, and that more than 2.7 million people live in “very high fire hazard severity zones,” that’s simply not good enough.

The reality of these disasters is sobering, because “there’s nothing to indicate it won’t continue,” according to Russ Vose, monitoring chief at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). “When there’s more heat in the system, that has a cascading effect on other parts of the system. Sea level goes up. Warmer air can hold more moisture, which tends to equate to more extreme storms. There’s a lot of impacts that go along with a warmer world.”

“The primary reason for these record temperatures is the accumulation of greenhouse gas in the atmosphere” from the burning of coal, oil, and gas, explained Samantha Burgess, strategic climate lead at Copernicus Climate Change Services. “As greenhouse gases continue to accumulate in the atmosphere, temperatures continue to increase, including in the ocean; sea levels continue to rise, and glaciers and ice sheets continue to melt.”

Global warming has also played an enormous role in strengthening hurricanes. As the oceans warm, hurricanes can draw upon this increased heat, resulting in stronger winds and heavier rainfall. According to the NOAA, warmer ocean temperatures contribute to the intensification of tropical cyclones, rendering them more powerful and destructive, and it’s only getting worse. Rainfall rates within tropical storms and hurricanes are expected to increase by about 15 percent in the years to come, with Atlantic hurricanes reaching Category 4 or 5 intensity projected to increase by 10 percent.

Elevated storm surges means more extensive coastal flooding, potentially wreaking havoc on infrastructure and entire ecosystems. The risk this poses to populations in coastal regions can seem insurmountable.

Meanwhile, the Center for Climate and Energy Solutions notes that “changes in the atmosphere, like the warming of the Arctic, may be contributing to other trends seen in the hurricane record. Hurricanes today travel more slowly than they previously did. Though the mechanism that is causing this slowdown is still debated, it is clear that storms are ‘stalling’ and subjecting coastal regions to higher total rainfall and longer periods of high winds and storm surge. This has increased the destruction caused by recent storms in the U.S.”

Yale Climate Connections has found a link between this deceleration of hurricane movement and changes in atmospheric circulation patterns that are associated with climate change. They remarked, “Given the expected boost in intense cyclones, society faces growing threats. With a combination of stronger storms, sea level rise, increased coastal populations, and infrastructure exposure, damages and disruptions will continue to mount.”

Even among those who are privy enough to ignore the climate-denying agenda of the fossil fuel industry, there are barriers that remain in terms of awakening people and mobilizing them against the looming danger. Two such barriers are general ignorance and apathy to the climate crisis issue overall, often exploited by lawmakers in service of the fossil fuel industry.

“Climate change-related alarm bells have been ringing almost constantly, which may be causing the public to become numb to the urgency, like police sirens in New York City,” said Jennifer Francis, a scientist at Woodwell Climate Research Center. “In the case of the climate, though, the alarms are getting louder, and the emergencies are now way beyond just temperature.”

Perhaps nothing drives home the real and present danger of global warming more than fires. As TIME magazine put it: “Fire is one of the most primal expressions of a planet in upheaval. Southern California is not the only tinderbox in the world, but it’s an especially flammable one.”

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CONTRIBUTOR

Blake Skylar

Blake is a writer and production manager, responsible for the daily assembly of the People's World home page. He has earned awards from the IWPA and ILCA, and his articles have appeared in publications such as Workday Minnesota, EcoWatch, and Earth First News. He has covered issues including the BP oil spill in New Orleans and the 2015 U.N. Climate Conference in Paris.

He lives in Pennsylvania with his girlfriend and their cats. He enjoys wine, books, music, and nature. In his spare time, he reviews music, creates artwork, and is working on several books and digital comics.