By Alliance for Sustainability President Terry Gips
Devastating and heartbreaking. All of us at the Alliance are filled with sadness about the loss of life, homes and communities in the LA region from the out-of-control wild fires fueled by an unprecedented combination of hurricane force Santa Ana winds and extreme drought thanks to climate change.
Friends of mine have lost their homes, along with thousands of others…so far. It’s tragic.
But in addition to seeing the burned out blocks, what really struck me were the comments on CNN by Nick Melvoin with the LA Unified School District. He is the son of my high school classmate Rick Melvoin.
Nick shared that all the thousand schools in the district are now closed. Given that 85% of the students live in poverty and rely on their school’s free meals program, how will they have food to eat? For those who’ve lost their apartments, where will they live, especially since affordable places to stay are gone? And what will happen to their education?
I’m also concerned about the worn out firefighters and the all-too-predictable long-term health consequences they and everyone nearby will experience from breathing in the toxic soup of chemicals from the various plastics and other typical products in homes and businesses.
On top of that, insurance companies had previously been pulling out of parts of the California market (along with numerous other states), canceling 30,000 policies or skyrocketing up their insurance rates. California rates will go even higher, putting home ownership even further out of reach for so many. Yes, the wealthy will pay those record-high premiums and rebuild, but how about everyone else? Disparities will become wider than ever.
The Alliance has been writing and warning about these challenges for decades. Unfortunately, there are far too many leaders who live in denial or spread misinformation with the public.
From California to New York and Florida, we continue to spend trillions to rebuild again and again but somehow don’t heed the warnings and fully address the underlying causes – climate change and how we build and make things.
If we don’t, the apocalyptic scenes we’re witnessing today will become the norm. And we and the planet can’t afford it. As Pete Seeger sang, “When will we ever learn?