I love LA. I'm lucky enough to have visited several times, my first trip was as a child to visit family and meet Mickey Mouse. My most recent trip to Los Angeles was wildly at the beginning of 2020, when I won a trip with Sprout Accelerator to attend a trade show which was subsequently cancelled as Covid began to spread. Being sent confronting images from my family, who thankfully are so far safe and seeing friends evacuate their homes, uncertain as to what, if anything, they might return to, seeing LA burn so furiously is terrifying and for me, feels closer to home than many other international climate-related disasters have.
While yes, wildfires are a natural occurrence that happens for 1000s and 1000s of years, these fires are not natural - these fires are propelled by climate change. Global warming has contributed to the copious amounts of dry vegetation, low humidity, warm temperatures and high winds have created the perfect storm for these fires to spread uncontrollably.
Though Southern California is known for its year-round warm temperatures, it is the middle of winter in Los Angeles. This is not ‘fire season’ which typically takes place in the hottest summer months. The overlap of the Northern and Southern Hemisphere fire seasons means that our abilities to fight the fires are compromised. New Zealand and Australia have reciprocal agreements with the US to send firefighters to help these types of fires. However, if we were to do so now, in the height of our own fire season, we could leave ourselves exposed, we’ve seen wildfires in Northland and Coromandel since the LA fires started burning. Instead, California has turned to its prisoners to help fight these fires which is a whole other issue on its own.
Southern California started 2025 on the back of eight months of drought. Since May 2024, Los Angeles County has had just 4.1mm of rain, for contrast Auckland has already received more than this in 2025. The current drought followed two years of unseasonably wet weather. The rain resulted in two years of new growth, which then dried up during the drought creating dry vegetation and a tinderbox for the fires to spread.
The Santa Ana Winds are notorious for blowing fiercely at this time of the year. Bringing hot dry conditions with them, contributing to the usually favourable Los Angeles climate. As the globe warms, windspeeds have increased. Winds fuel fires by providing them with more oxygen to burn as well as propelling embers ahead, which can spark spot fires in other directions. Each year there are usually around 10 Santa Ana wind events, each lasting a few days with the winds reaching 30-40 mph (48-63 kmh). This year the winds have exceeded 80 mph (129 kmh), this is about the same as a Category 3 Cyclone, and similar to the winds of Cyclone Gabrielle, only instead of rain, they bring terrifying walls of ferocious fire.
Climate change doesn’t just bring risks to our homes and possessions, but also to our health. The Greater Los Angeles area is home to some 18 million people. These people have been exposed to wildfire smoke filled with toxins from burning fuel, plastics, and chemicals. Not to mention the stress, anxiety and trauma those who are affected will be experiencing.
These fires are projected to be the worst natural disaster in US history, with estimated costs already up to USD$275 Billion (NZD$590 Billion). At the time of writing, more than 12,000 structures (mostly homes) have been lost, 92,000 people have evacuated, with a further 89,000 under evacuation watch (combined this is more than the population of Tauranga) and 24 people have lost their lives.
Wildfires are just one of many environmental disasters that we've been warned will become worse and more frequent as the planet continues to warm. 2024 saw us surpass the 1.5°C mark for the first time and at our current rate we’re heading for an alarming 3°C warmer where climate events grow exponentially in number and severity.
With food waste being responsible for up to 10% of total global greenhouse emissions, reducing it is an absolute no-brainer when it comes to the collective fight against the climate crisis and this event is yet another reminder to us as a community as to why Foodprint exists.
*This article has been put together from the consumption of many news articles over the past week, including, but not limited to:
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