The devastating fires that swept through the Los Angeles area in California are a preview of what will happen if politicians, ideologues, and major oil companies continue to ignore climate change.
The Los Angeles Times reported last weekend that the recent disaster "erupted after a stark shift from very wet weather to extremely dry weather—a phenomenon that scientists describe as a 'climate whiplash,'" according to a new report by The Washington Post.
According to the local newspaper, new research shows that these sudden fluctuations from humidity to drought and from drought to humidity, which can exacerbate wildfires, floods, and other hazards, are increasing in frequency and intensity due to human-induced climate change.
Heavy rains caused by rising ocean temperatures lead to excessive grass growth on hill slopes, which can catch fire abnormally in dry weather.
The newspaper stated that "these extreme weather fluctuations will continue to become more frequent and variable, with rainfall increasingly concentrated in shorter and more intense bursts, interspersed with more severe dry periods."
In a study published at the beginning of this week in the journal Nature Reviews Earth & Environment, researchers examined global weather records and found that water-related climate fluctuations have already increased by 31% to 66% since the mid-20th century and are likely to more than double in a scenario where the world reaches 3 degrees Celsius, or 5.4 degrees Fahrenheit, of warming.
During a wave of wildfires in 2022, Gon Higgy, a division chief in the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, told CNN, "What I can say is that this is a direct result of climate change. You can't suffer a 10-year drought in California and expect things to be the same. We are now paying the price for that 10-year drought and climate change."
The Washington Post says that such terrifying disasters will become routine if climate change deniers, led by the anti-science MAGA crowd, achieve their goal.
In other words, it has proven to be extremely costly to ignore Al Gore, the Vice President of the United States during Bill Clinton's presidency, and others like him in the scientific community who had been raising the alarm about climate change for decades.
At the Energy Summit in 2017, Gore had previously warned, saying, "Across the West, we see these fires getting much worse, and the main reason is the heat."
Gore was right when he described climate change as an "inconvenient truth," and this has created a media and political challenge for right-wing ideologues and their fossil fuel supporters.
The most prominent among them currently is the elected American president, Donald Trump, who has explicitly stated that climate change is a hoax and made unrealistic comments about the causes of the Los Angeles fires, according to the Washington Post.
Amid the Los Angeles disaster, Trump made false claims about a lack of funding for the Federal Emergency Management Agency and Governor Gavin Newsom's refusal to sign the "Water Restoration Declaration."
Meanwhile, Elon Musk, now Trump's right-hand man, blamed the dark-skinned mayor of Los Angeles, Karen Bass, for prioritizing diversity, equity, and inclusion policies over fire safety.
The right-wing media machine claimed that Bass cut funding for the fire department, which was completely untrue, as reported by leading American media platforms ABC News and Politico, according to the Washington Post.
In short, climate change deniers and their fossil fuel supporters will not be able to cope with the deadly and devastating effects of climate change, the enormous costs it imposes, and the indescribable human suffering in both red and blue states.
In the face of the consequences that Gore and others predicted, they resort to lies and denial, which is no longer an option after the destruction witnessed in Los Angeles.
