We recall the catastrophic fires in Maui almost two years ago, then the horde of unusually violent hurricanes trashing Florida’s west coast. To the surprise of many, those storms unleashed cataclysmic flooding in western North Carolina, up there in the mountains. All these extreme weather events were tied in part to warming temperatures. As for wiping out large parts of an entire civilization, though, nothing can match the wildfires torching community after community in and around Los Angeles.
But in the case of Los Angeles, the problem isn’t just climate change. It’s the climate itself.
Hollywood could build outdoor sets resembling New Guinea’s tropical rainforests. But that didn’t change the reality that California, as much of the West, is arid and has always been. Warming temperatures make it more arid.
