California wildfires: Activist calls for serious climate action plans

Amid the ongoing wildfires in California, the Executive Director of 350.org, May Boeve, has underscored the need for serious climate action plans at the state and federal level.

Due to a much warmer climate, fires have increased worldwide in recent years. After the Amazon and Indonesia, where the amount of land consumed by fires through September 2019 has exceeded the amount burned during all of 2018, it’s California’s turn to burn once again this year.

Cutting a destructive path, spreading due to hurricane-force winds, fires whipped across Northern and Southern California this Monday. Tens of thousands of acres are burning, driving over 200,000 people from their homes, being recorded as the largest evacuation in history in Kincade, in Sonoma County. The fire remains deadly and is yet to be contained. Now marching towards the county’s population hub of Santa Rosa, it risks damaging 80,000 homes.

In Southern California, the Getty Fire in Los Angeles rapidly burned over 500 acres, with hundreds fleeing from their homes. California wildfires have worsened due to climate change; several wildfires have also been linked to electrical malfunctions caused by Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) power lines.

The following is a statement from May Boeve, executive director of 350.org:  “As a resident of the Bay Area in California and as someone who grew up in Sonoma County where fires are destroying homes, causing mass evacuations, power cuts, and impacting our air quality, I am devastated by the ongoing impacts of climate-fueled wildfires in our region.

California wildfires happen year-round now because of worsening drought and the impacts of climate change – and our communities are paying the costs through our homes, lives and livelihoods. We don’t just need thoughts and prayers, we need serious climate action plans at the state and federal level.

We refuse to accept these fires as the ‘new normal’ for our state and its people. Californians and communities around the country deserve better. We need elected officials at all levels to do the work to keep fossil fuels in the ground and invest in a just transition to 100% renewables for all. As wildfire-impacted communities pick up the pieces once again this year, we’re demanding more than business-as-usual, we want real commitment and action.”