Firefighters on Wednesday confronted persistently strong and dry winds fueling two giant wildfires that have terrified Los Angeles for eight days, testing the resolve of a city upended by the worst disaster in its history. Officials urged residents to remain vigilant and be prepared to evacuate at a moment’s notice with peak wind gusts forecast…
After decades of mounting damage from climate-fueled natural disasters, researchers have compiled many misery-filled data sets that trace the economic fallout over weeks, months and years. The fires still burning in Los Angeles are sure to rank among America’s most expensive — but there is no perfect analogue for them, making it difficult to forecast…
(Editors note: We are continuing to cover the Los Angeles fires. Scroll down for more on the latest.) Societies have used nutrient-rich human waste as fertilizer for centuries. But sewage today is different. That’s because we’ve flooded the environment with complex chemicals that can end up in our sewage and wastewater and can’t be easily…
It’s too soon to know how the Los Angeles fires will change life in California, but it may heavily depend on the answer to a single question: Will a once-obscure insurance program run out of money? That program, the California FAIR Plan, was created by state lawmakers in 1968 to cover people who couldn’t get…
Aircraft battling fires raging through the Los Angeles area are dousing the area with more than water: Hundreds of thousands of gallons of hot-pink fire suppressant have been dropped ahead of the flames in a desperate effort to stop them before they destroy more neighborhoods. The deadly fires have displaced thousands of residents and destroyed…
It kills more people each year than car crashes, war or drugs do. This invisible killer is the air pollution from sources like cars and trucks or factory smokestacks. But as wildfires intensify and grow more frequent in a warming world, the smoke from these fires is emerging as a new and deadly pollution source,…
As Los Angeles burned for days on end, horrifying the nation, scientists made an announcement on Friday that could help explain the deadly conflagration: 2024 was the hottest year in recorded history. With temperatures rising around the globe and the oceans unusually warm, scientists are warning that the world has entered a dangerous new era…
This week’s fires around Los Angeles present a puzzle: Why is California, the state best equipped to deal with wildfires, seemingly unable to prevent blazes from consuming entire chunks of the country’s second-largest city? California’s building code for wildfires is among the most protective in the nation. Its local fire departments are backed up by…
California is the most prepared state in America for wildfires. So why is it unable to protect its largest city? Source link
From above the raging flames, these planes can unleash immense tankfuls of bright pink fire retardant in just 20 seconds. They have long been considered vital in the battle against wildfires. But emerging research has shown that the millions of gallons of retardant sprayed on the landscape to tame wildfires each year come with a…
