To the editor: As an environmental lawyer steeped in the fossil-fueled “climate whiplash” that unleashed the wildfires ripping through Los Angeles, I was still stunned to be packing up my family and cats to flee our Altadena home Tuesday night.
As I write this, my home is at risk, my family’s synagogue and kids’ elementary school have burned down, and many friends have lost everything. My fear and grief are compounded by outrage at the failure to hold fossil-fuel polluters accountable for the devastation they’ve profited from causing.
At more than $50 billion in estimated damages, the L.A. fires rank as one of the worst disasters in U.S. history. Yet, the oil companies that fueled the climate chaos contributing to these fires get off scot-free.
One of my organization’s top priorities is a California climate superfund bill expected this legislative session. It would make corporate polluters pay part of their huge profits to repair the damage they’ve caused.
It’s time to take the multibillion-dollar climate burden off Californians suffering catastrophic damages and put it on polluters, where it belongs.
Maya Golden-Krasner, Altadena
The author is deputy director of the Center for Biological Diversity’s Climate Law Institute.
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To the editor: The unprecedented fire emergency that has engulfed Los Angeles is a dress rehearsal for “the Big One” (earthquake) that will come sooner or later. Except the Big One will also come with collapsed buildings, mass casualties and near-total communications breakdowns (dead cellphones, no internet and spotty or nonexistent TV and radio coverage).
Take heed, folks: The Big One will totally overwhelm first responders. You will be on your own for days or weeks.
Here’s my advice: Join your local Community Emergency Response Team chapter. Get trained on how to fight small fires, perform light search and rescue, render first aid and effectively communicate with radios.
The cavalry won’t be coming to help you immediately when the Big One hits.
Jon Rowe, Costa Mesa
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To the editor: We already have an insufficient housing supply in Los Angeles. And now, thousands of our neighbors have lost their homes in these catastrophic fires.
Local governments in the area should act immediately to end all Airbnb-type short-term rentals for tourist visitors and return these apartments and houses to our housing market so that the fire victims might find a place to live in their home city and start to pick up the pieces of their lives.
This is an emergency, and our elected leaders have to act now to provide housing to Angelenos in their time of need.
Kathy Reims, Los Angeles
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To the editor: Given the storm of fire we’re experiencing in the City of Angels, when all of this is finally over, the mayor and City Council should unanimously declare that day a municipal holiday, one that honors the extraordinary, historic efforts of our firefighters and first responders. They are surely the angels of this generation’s Angelenos.
The day should be unforgettably marked with a citywide parade for our heroes, giving every one of us the opportunity to come out and cheer them with a unity and gratitude we didn’t know we had in us.
Moshe ben Asher and Khulda Bat Sarah, Encino
