Bad Leaders — Not Climate Change — Are the Reason the LA Fires Are Burning California

The scenes from the wildfires devastating Los Angeles are apocalyptic. As of this writing, more than 2,000 homes, businesses and other buildings have been destroyed, and five people have died.

Firefighters have battled, with little success, flames spread by hurricane-force winds from Pacific Palisades and Santa Monica — wealthy areas in western LA near the Santa Monica Recreation Area — to the east in Eaton (near Pasadena) and farther toward the Cattle Canyon Bridge, located near the San Bernardino National Forest.

Though the cause of the current blaze has yet to be established, commentators are already making familiar claims that climate change is igniting more wildfires in California — a thesis with no basis in fact.

Some state and local officials even argue that high winds themselves caused the wildfires.

Not so: Wind, by itself, doesn’t create sparks that trigger wildfires, though it certainly worsens them once they’ve started, as is happening here.

The most common causes of recent wildfires in the Golden State have been human activities (including arson) and poorly maintained power lines, such as those belonging to the Pacific Gas and Electric Company, which caused the 2018 Camp Fire that killed 85 people.

Another likely culprit: bad forest management.

Continue reading the entire piece here at the New York Post

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Jonathan A. Lesser, PhD, is a senior fellow with the National Center for Energy Analytics and the president of Continental Economics Inc. He was previously an adjunct fellow with the Manhattan Institute. This piece is adapted from City Journal.

Photo by Jeff Gritchen/MediaNews Group/Orange County Register via Getty Images