Consider This from NPR - What's Driving California's Biggest-Ever Wildfire Season

Episode Date: September 7, 2020

California set a new record high this week for the most acres burned in a single wildfire season. In an average season, 300,000 acres burn. This year more than 2 million acres have been scorched — and the season isn't over yet. Some communities have taken actions to prevent fires from spreading, but as NPR's Nathan Rott and Lauren Sommer report, those efforts may not be enough.Fire itself isn't the only threat to people. NPR's daily science podcast Short Wave looked into the science of wildfire smoke and how far-reaching it can be. Listen on Apple or Spotify. Reporter Erika Mahoney from member station KAZU has more on dual threats facing farmworkers: wildfire smoke and COVID-19. As these fires have been burning, other regions across the country have also faced extreme weather. Hurricane forecasters are watching multiple storm systems in the Atlantic that could develop into tropical storms in what has already been an extremely busy hurricane season. NPR's Rebecca Hersher, Nathan Rott, and Lauren Sommer on the growing threat of extreme weather due to climate change. Find and support your local public radio station.Email us at [e-mail] Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Here in California, where I live, nine of the top 10 biggest fires in state history have happened in the last decade. And there are basically three big reasons why. Several dangerous fires burning across Southern California in stifling hot and dry conditions. First, it's climate change, which pushes temperatures up to levels that are usually unheard of here, like we just had over the weekend. One part of L.A. County hit 121 degrees, the highest temperature ever recorded there. Second, it's that for decades now, the U.S. has focused too much on fire suppression, putting out fires where they actually should burn,

which means a buildup of more stuff on the ground that can catch fire. And third, it's us. People start fires. Tonight, we're learning shocking details about what started the 7,500-acre El Dorado fire that's burning near Yucaipa. Especially now, when in the middle of a pandemic, more people are getting together outside. Hiking, camping, and in the case of the big fire burning in San Bernardino County, having parties. Now comes word that that blaze was sparked by a gender reveal party. Officials say that the pyrotechnic device, which exploded colored smoke

to announce the baby's sex, ignited the dry brush. Cal Fire, the state firefighter agency, says in an average fire season here, about 300,000 acres burn. Already this year, over 2 million acres have burned. That is a record. And it could get worse, as the hot Santa Ana winds are expected to pick up again on Tuesday and Wednesday. Coming up, what it would take to prevent these fires, and why it's so hard to make those things happen.

This is Consider This from NPR. I'm Kelly McEvers. It is Monday, September 7th. This message comes from NPR sponsor, New Belgium Brewing, and its flagship beer, Fat Tire Amber Ale. You can't brew great beer without healthy rivers, forests and soils. That's why Fat Tire Amber Ale is now America's first certified carbon neutral beer. More at DrinkSustainably.com. This is Consider This from NPR.

So this is not a new problem for California. As far back as 2003, fire officials here knew things needed to change. That was when a fire known as the Old Fire burned a part of the town of Big Bear. There was 300 or 400 houses that were lost. So that was a big moment of recognition is what I would say to where all of a sudden public opinion changed in a very rapid way. Jeff Willis is the fire chief there. He says that fire exposed some vulnerabilities. Houses had wooden roofs. They were surrounded by dry, flammable brush. So the town issued new requirements to cut the brush and gave grants to more than 1,000 homeowners to replace their roofs.

You know, that was a heck of an effort. Gradually over time, although initially controversial, I think we made tremendous strides. But the problem is that brush, it grows back. And cutting it down every year costs money. Essentially what I would need, and I know I'm not alone from a fire chief's perspective, we would need to double our budget. The state of California had planned to set up a billion-dollar fund

to help do some of this fire prevention. But like a lot of states during the pandemic, California just has a lot less money to spend. And the program was canceled. We can't one more engine, one more hand crew our way out of this. It's just not going to be. Tom Harbour, National Fire Chief for the U.S. Forest Service, told NPR the scale of the wildfire problem is so vast that even if we do a lot of the right things,

like the kinds of things they did in Big Bear, it could take decades to make a real difference. As bad as it is, it's going to get worse. And it's going to get worse for another decade or two, even with us adopting some of these mitigations. NPR's Lauren Summer and Nate Rott have reported on wildfires and why states like California are struggling to deal with them. You can find a link to their work in our episode notes. Of course, one of the many problems these wildfires create is smoke, which can travel hundreds of miles from where it starts. So one of the things I always try to remind folks is that we all live downwind of somebody. Jessica Gilman is an atmospheric chemist for NOAA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

And she told NPR back in late August. Right now, even though most of the fires are certainly on the West Coast, up to 80 percent or more of the continental U.S. is seeing the effects of this smoke. So even my family, who lives in Ohio, can go out and see these red sunsets, potentially from smoke that's being emitted out in California and Colorado. The risk of breathing unhealthy air is higher, of course, if you are close to the source of the smoke and if you work outside, which is what reporter Erica Mahoney found in the strawberry fields of Salinas, California. There, farmworkers really don't have the option to stay home

because their paycheck depends on how much they pick. A farmworker swiftly picks a row of strawberries. He tosses to the ground the bruised berries that won't sell, the others into their plastic clamshells. The air quality is better on this day, but just a few weeks ago, the sun glowed orange and ash fell from the sky after a wildfire erupted nearby. Jesus Almada, the ag foreman, says the smoke was so thick in mid-August

that it hurt the crew's sinuses. We stopped for our safety, he says. We had to stop for one day. And that wasn't an easy call. He's in charge of 65 people who are paid more money the more they pick. It's been a tremendously difficult year. Dr. Caroline Kennedy cares for farmworkers. She directs nine clinics in Monterey County, where agriculture is a leading industry. Do you stay home when the air quality doesn't make you feel well, or do you just go back to work? These farmworkers, who are predominantly

Latino, feed the world, yet they're struggling to feed their own families. And they've been disproportionately affected by the coronavirus. In Monterey County alone, more than 70 percent of cases are among Latinos. Often they go back to very congested living situations and everyone in the family is infected. COVID-19 patients tell Kennedy they just can't take a deep breath. That's compounded by wildfire smoke. Under a California regulation that took effect last year, employers must provide proper masks to outdoor workers when air quality degrades to a certain level. Whether or not the workers are required to actually put on the mask depends on how bad

the air quality is. The messaging is confusing, says Richard Stedman, who runs the Regional Air Resources District. When the air is bad, the general public is told to stay indoors. So when I see workers being advised that they can go out into the field and exert themselves as long as they have in their possession a mask that's not very protective. The United Farm Workers says even so, enforcement of the regulation is a problem. Armando Alanis is with the UFW. I mean, the vast majority of farm workers were not provided or have not been provided N95 masks. UFW conducted a statewide poll in August to get a better understanding of the situation. Workers told Alanis their eyes felt like they were burning.

But, you know, they were, unfortunately, they were more worried about trying to make ends meet and trying to pay the rent. With multiple wildfires in California and a pandemic that's making N95s hard to find, the state answered calls for help and shipped around 1.4 million masks to counties throughout the state. Henry Gonzalez, the Agricultural Commissioner for Monterey County, says he's received over 330,000. Those were, I think, really a godsend that we were able to get those, considering their scarcity. Back at the strawberry field in Salinas, Gonzalez watches workers snap close the fruit containers.

He says showing up to this job can be a risk, but the produce can't wait. They're ready when they're ready, and if you're not there to harvest them, they're going to go to waste. Which means less money for companies, smaller paychecks for farm workers, and fewer strawberries in grocery carts. Losses that might be necessary to protect farm workers' health. Erica Mahoney with NPR member station KAZU. Climate change is also leading to a busy hurricane season this year. Just today, two new tropical storms developed in the Atlantic Ocean. Tropical Storm Paulette and Tropical Storm Renee.

And it's only been 10 days since Hurricane Laura made landfall in Louisiana as a Category 4 storm. It killed at least 25 people. NPR's Rebecca Herscher reports on how for years climate scientists have been trying to tell us that the problem is us. Camilo Mora is a climate scientist, works at the University of Hawaii. And this year has left him so frustrated because humans knew this was coming. Keep in mind that all of these things are related. And so CO2 is increasing the temperature. Hotter temperatures mean more moisture evaporates into the air. Evaporation of water leads to drought that in turn leads to heat waves and wildfires. In places that are humid, the same evaporation leads to massive precipitation that then is commonly followed

by floods. So we have come to understand this. And to be honest with you, who cares, right? I mean, he cares. But he's saying it can feel like he and other scientists are screaming into the void when they tell people climate change is dangerous. Last year, Mora and a team of top climate scientists published a study. And their conclusion was that in the future, lots of disasters will happen all at once. And to be honest with you, when these things happen and people get surprised, I just ask myself, I mean, no offense to anybody, but what the hell, man? Like this thing, we have known this thing for the longest of times.

If humans cut greenhouse gas emissions dramatically, immediately, it will make the future safer. But emissions keep going up, not down, which means warmer air, which means heat waves, which means more intense wildfires like the ones in California and Colorado, and warmer water, which means hurricanes like Laura that get really powerful really fast. Now this is concerning since hurricanes that rapidly intensify before landfall are the hardest ones to prepare for. Jeff Masters is a meteorologist who writes for Yale University's Climate Connections. Whenever you get ocean temperatures that are much above average, you're asking for trouble. And we've seen some of the warmest ocean temperatures on record for the Atlantic Basin. In some parts of

the Gulf of Mexico, the water is near 90 degrees. That's what helped Laura go from a relatively weak storm to a monster in less than 24 hours. I mean, heat is energy. And if you're putting heat into a system, you're going to expect higher energy events. A hot ocean was the fuel for Hurricane Laura's devastating wind and water. The same was true for Hurricanes Harvey, Maria, Michael, Florence, Irma. The list goes on from just the last three years. And then there's the pandemic. A warmer world makes disease outbreaks more likely as humans and animals move around and come into contact in new ways.

The only way out, scientists continue to say, is to stop releasing greenhouse gases. NPR science reporter Rebecca Herscher. This is Consider This from NPR. I'm Kelly McEvers. A whole lot of people say they believe in so-called peaceful protests. This is Consider This from NPR. I'm Kelly McEvers.