Upstream - [TEASER] World on Fire

Episode Date: January 11, 2025

This is a free preview of the episode "World on Fire." You can listen to the full episode by subscribing to our Patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/upstreampodcast As a Patreon subscriber you'll get access to at least one bonus episode a month (usually two or three), our entire back catalog of Patreon episodes, early access to certain episodes, and other benefits like stickers and bumper stickers—depending on which tier you subscribe to. access to bi-weekly bonus episodes ranging from conversations to readings and more. Signing up for Patreon is a great way to make Upstream a weekly show, and it will also give you access to our entire back catalog of Patreon episodes along with stickers and bumper stickers at certain subscription tiers. You’ll also be helping to keep Upstream sustainable and allowing us to keep this project going. In this bonus Patreon episode, Robbie takes some time to reflect on the fires in the LA area and reads a piece that he wrote for Huffington Post which exposed the privatization of firefighting services during the 2018 Woolsey Fire in LA. This episode in our reading series covers a wide variety of topics from climate change, forest mismanagement, how neoliberalism shapes our municipalities, the rise of fascism and cop cities, the role of mutual aid, the rise of private firefighting services (and the rich assholes who utilize them while simultaneously working for the defunding of public services), the oligarchs who run California's agriculture industry, the connection between imperialism and climate change, and much more. Further resources: "As California’s Wildfires Raged, The Ultra-Rich Hired Private Firefighters," Robert Raymond All Power Books Midnight Books PSL Los Angeles The People's Struggle San Fernando Valley Mutual Aid LA A Paradise Built in Hell, Rebecca Solnit Related episodes: [UNLOCKED] Oil, Monopoly Capitalism, and Imperialism w/ Adam Hanieh The Curse w/ Carlee Breaking the Chains of Empire w/ Abby Martin (Live Show) Disabled Ecologies w/ Sunaura Taylor Upstream is a labor of love — we couldn't keep this project going without the generosity of our listeners and fans. Subscribe to our Patreon at patreon.com/upstreampodcast or please consider chipping in a one-time or recurring donation at www.upstreampodcast.org/support If your organization wants to sponsor one of our upcoming documentaries, we have a number of sponsorship packages available. Find out more at  upstreampodcast.org/sponsorship For more from Upstream, visit www.upstreampodcast.org and follow us on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and Bluesky. You can also subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts.

Hey everyone, Robby here with another Patreon episode and this one is actually sort of an off week bonus episode because I just really wanted to get into the studio and talk a little bit about some current events and our next Patreon week isn't until like the week of the 20th and that just felt like way too far out. So yeah, today I want to talk a little bit about the LA fires and I'm going to do so by actually reading an essay that I wrote in 2018, which is, I think eerily so relevant to what's happening right now in Southern California. And I do just want to start though by saying like really my heart goes out to everyone who is impacted by this right now. I know a number of people who've told me that they know like dozens of friends who've lost their family homes and their apartments and

at least 10 people have lost their lives so far. Hundreds of thousands have been evacuated, something like 2,000 structures have been lost. I think this is now the most destructive fire in LA's history. Well, there are like five fires burning right now, and some are much larger than others, but that's saying a lot because Los Angeles County burns a lot. I'm also definitely feeling really sad thinking about all of the wildlife and also all of the pets and our animal friends. And I'm going to try to throw some links for donations and mutual aid stuff in the show notes. And I'll keep adding to those as they keep coming in and I keep seeing them. But it's definitely true that fire is a natural part

of the Californian landscape, but not like this, right? Like climate change exacerbates things in a way that turns these fires, it turns fires into mega fires and once in a lifetime events into common occurrences. And I think it's also really important when we think about this stuff to think about the increased density of populations living in these areas of what we call the wildland-urban interface. So in this context, this would be sort of where the Santa Ana Hills, I'd say, I think.

I'm not super familiar with the LA area, but the more wildland areas sort of meet the urban population. And the structures and the homes in these areas end up adding a lot of fuel to the fire in a way that wouldn't happen if we actually planned our development a little bit more responsibly. And that's not even really mentioning that these homes and structures themselves are like tinder boxes filled with all sorts of petroleum products, from vinyl siding to gas tanks and cars, propane tanks.

There's just so many petroleum-based explosive products in our homes these days. And of course, this is one of the reasons why fires like this end up growing to the sizes that they do and end up impacting urban populations like we're seeing in LA right now. Of course this is in no way shape or form placing blame on the individuals who live in those homes necessarily. This is a systemic issue and it's a matter of like you know building responsibly and zoning and all sorts of different things like that.

Where I live in 2020, the CZU fires in the Santa Cruz mountains, those are one of the worst fires that our area had ever seen. And one of our beautiful, beautiful redwood parks where some of the most beautiful old growth redwoods live was actually burned and the park was actually closed for a long time. It actually reopened not too long ago and I was able to go on my first walk there recently and it was a very eerie landscape. Most of the redwoods were alive but they had just sort of all lost their branches, like the branches had burned off.

So they just look like these really tall stumps with a bunch of like shrubbery at the top. And usually when you hike through these redwood forests, you can't really see the sky, right? Like the canopy covers so much, but there was so much light coming in and all of this growth on the forest floor that just felt really eerie. Like is a redwood forest but it doesn't look like a redwood forest but the reason i bring this up is because i remember reading that the redwoods that didn't survive. Often or the ones that were clustered in areas where there are human structures in the park. in the park, like ranger stations, whatever, you know, these kinds of structures that were built that actually end up burning really, really hot. And they end up creating these areas where everything around them burns. And this reminds me of what's going on a little bit with the structures in the wildland urban interface, they really fuel these fires and

funnel them in a way directly into these urban centers. So it's all so fucked up and I'm really sorry to anybody out there who is dealing with this in any way, shape or form. And you know, the sad reality is that this is not even going to be our new normal, you know, as they like to say, this is just the beginning. These types of disasters and the frequency with which we're seeing them is actually gonna be the most calm and chill experience of climate change that we'll ever have. So it's only gonna continue to get worse and worse,

even if we were to stop emitting any carbon into the atmosphere today, things would still worsen dramatically. And so that's just, that's so much to take in and then so much to think about. And please dear God, don't listen to any of the fucking idiots who are trying to distract from the fact that this is absolutely a climate fueled disaster. You know, you have shit stains like I saw the libs of TikTok and Elon Musk on Twitter trying to blame this on DEI and God knows what else they can try to fucking distract people

with. It's so fucking outrageous and enraging seeing these people's mindset and like how no matter what they will always put their disgusting ideology first and only analyze the world through these like set of beliefs that are absolutely removed from reality. Some other dumbass was talking about how we have to blame indigenous people because they were allegedly responsible for lobbying the state to remove dams, which they claim led to shortages in reservoir water. And it's like, please shut the fuck up. I think Elon Musk was talking about how this is not a climate related disaster. And I mean, of course, it's not only

caused by climate change, as if that's like even a thing that makes sense to think about like that. There are of course, like a constellation of factors that lead to these types of events and climate change is a part, a significant part of that. But the system that brought us climate change is 100% responsible. I mean, in a direct way, California's years long drought is a direct response of climate change. I don't think it rained in the Pacific Palisades area for like a hundred days or something like that is what I heard on the news. The strong hurricane force winds like hundred mile per hour winds, that's definitely exacerbated by climate change.

But then yeah, let's look at the systemic causes, right? Like the same system that brings us climate change brings us a mayor of LA defunding LAFD, the fire department, like $20 million. While at the same time, they increase the police budget by over $100 million. And I'll talk more about that in a sec. But some more contributing factors. Yes, you have decades of mismanagement. You have development of areas that should not be developed, like I mentioned earlier. And then you have decades of mismanagement, you have development of areas that should not be developed like I mentioned earlier, and then you have this issue of water scarcity in California. This is a really fucking fun one. If you want to blame individuals,

Elon Musk and fucking Libs of TikTok, why not start with the billionaire family that owns an insane amount of California's public water supply. So Linda and Stuart Resnick are two oligarchs that own more water than LA uses in a year. And they're sort of the top of this like pistachio, almond, citrus fruit empire. They hoard all of this water to irrigate the crops, and of course, which are shipped overseas. And there's actually a really good episode of the podcast, The Dallop, about this family and how they lobbied for the destabilization of countries like Iran so that they didn't

have to compete for pistachio market share, and then again, further so that they could export their pistachio market share and then again further so that they could export their pistachios there. This family, these oligarchs benefit from sanctions on Iranians and so just really really disgusting stuff and the Resnick's are in the news right now because LA's fire hydrants are running dry. The pressure for the fire hydrant system has been failing, and there's just not enough water to fight the fires with. Now whether or not this is related to the hoarding of this single family of so much water, I don't think that that's a direct cause of it, but it is a really important

reflection upon this system, right? That we have privatized control of public resources like water. And of course, the Resnick's and the oligarch families that run a lot of that, you know, corporate agriculture, especially with almonds, like the amount of water that is diverted away from public use and put into the hands of private companies and individuals like this is disgusting. And it's only going to lead to further concentration of power. I think the issue with the fire hydrant is not working properly is related to mismanagement and you know a city that is known for catching on fire should have a system design that you know will not lead to

water not being available when it's needed the most and we're focusing on the Resnicks here for a second, but of course the entire history of California is a history of powerful developers and oligarchs like the Resnicks taking control of public resources to enrich themselves. The Roman Polanski film Chinatown is about this, but of course it's a well-known, well-documented history, and it's not just this one oligarch family. It just happens to be that they're the face of it right now because they are particularly fucking evil, but it's the whole system, which is rotten at its core. And oh, of course, also,

while we're on the Resnicks, they also own the Fiji Water Company brand, and there's some really evil-ass shit that they're up to with that as well. So yeah, seriously, check out the episode of the dollop. I think it's titled the Resnick's water monsters. But of course, right wingers like Elon Musk aren't going to draw attention to that. Because they are part of that class. And they're just using this event to push their own bankrupt, disgusting ideology and their own fascist propaganda. So yes, of course, this is absolutely a climate-fueled disaster, but it also has its roots in the very soil that this godforsaken capitalist hellhole world we live in was founded on. Right, so let me go back to the defunding of the LAFD by Mayor Karen Bass of LA and also with

the Los Angeles City Council by $17.5 million. And like I mentioned earlier, this comes at the same time that the police budget was increased by $126 million. And it's just like, of course a headline like this would fucking exist, right? Like, of fucking course. It's not even shocking or surprising in any way, shape or form. Like you've just come to expect this kind of stuff at this point in our decline as a country. And of course, it is not just a coincidence that the funding of police departments coincided with this. Funding the police department is their climate policy. It is their disaster response.

It's their refugee response. Mad Max-esque fascist worlds don't just emerge overnight. They emerge over time, slowly, piece by piece. And we sort of see them happening in these sort of one-off piecemeal things like this, but it's all part of a much broader process. And I think at this point, every single state in the United States has a cop city of some kind, which is designed to train cops to crush us, to crush activists, protesters, agitators. But of course, we shouldn't also fall into the error of thinking that we can just fight to abolish the police. I mean, it's a great rally cry,

and I think it's an important end goal, and we have an entire episode on abolishing the police. But it's also incredibly important to note that if we are somehow, and this is definitely just a thought experiment, successful in defunding or even abolishing the police en masse, the oligarchs in the ruling class are just going to continue to build up their own private police forces. And that might even be a better option for them because then there's absolutely no semblance even of accountability, right? Like even the 1% of accountability that exists right now among police departments, even that would be gone.

And so this brings me to the issue of privatization. And this brings us to the essay that I'm going to be reading today, which looks at the privatization of And this brings us to the essay that I'm going to be reading today, which looks at the privatization of firefighting. So like I mentioned, this is a piece that I wrote in 2018. It was actually one of the first pieces that I had published in a sort of larger outlet, which was the Huffington Post. And as I read through it, I am definitely going to pop in and make connections to what's happening right now. And so the piece is about a viral news story about the relevance and it's wild that we're in the

exact same place six years later as we'll see as we talk about the private firefighting forces right now. Okay, so this essay is titled, as California's wildfires raged, the ultra rich hired private firefighters. Then it goes on with the subheading, Kim Kardashian and Kanye West were among those able to save their homes, but whether or not your home burns down shouldn't depend on wealth. Wildfires don't burn evenly. There are several factors that determine how a fire spreads across a landscape. Wind direction.

Humidity levels. The moisture content of vegetation. And as it turns out, wealth. This was a clip from our Patreon episode, World on Fire. You can listen to the full episode by becoming a Patreon subscriber. As a Patreon subscriber, you'll get access to bi-weekly bonus episodes ranging from conversations to readings like this one and more. Signing up for our Patreon is a great way to make Upstream a weekly show, and it will give you access to our entire back catalogue of Patreon episodes,

along with stickers and bumper stickers at certain subscription tiers. a little bit.