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I’ve just published an op-ed in the CHE on a possible mitigation strategy: submission fees. https://www.chronicle.com/article/can-academe-survive-the-tidal-wave-of-ai-slop
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MOVING TO FRON FROM JANUARY 9–SEE ESP. THE VERY INFORMATIVE COMMENT FROM PHILOSOPHER CHRIS HITCHCOCK, BELOW–MORE COMMENTS WELCOME
Good luck to readers in the Los Angeles area; from the media reports, it looks very frightening indeed. Comments are open for anyone who wants to post information or updates.
The danger seems to have abated for the time being. What made these fires so destructive were the winds, which on Tuesday were clocked at up to seventy-plus mph — hurricane levels. That grounded firefighting aircraft while allowing the fire to spread like, well, wild fire. I live in south LA county near the beach. There was no danger here, but on Tuesday around midnight the air suddenly became foggy with smoke — and the odor of smoke — from the Altadena fire, some sixty miles away. Never quite seen anything like that.
It's worth mentioning that we narrowly missed witnessing a scene of urban apocalypse truly worthy of Hollywood cinema. On Wednesday, a fire broke out in the Hollywood Hills just above the famed Hollywood Boulevard (think the Chinese Theater and stars on the sidewalk). Luckily the winds weren't as intense then, and firefighters were able to do aerial drops on the blaze. Had that fire broken out just a day prior, it's likely it would have spread unabated to the neighborhood below, and we would have seen an urban fire disaster on a scale not witnessed in living memory. Thousands would have had to flee through city streets as famed landmarks went up in smoke.
Typically California wild fires affect wealthier neighborhoods, as those tend to be situated on the outskirts of cities where brush is plentiful. That was mostly the case here, though these types of "fire hurricanes" don't really need brush to fuel them and can wreak destruction anywhere.
In that regard, the fires provided a glimpse into the lives of the media elites. Local news personalities kept mentioning that their own properties were in danger. And evidently Katy Tur and Jacob Soboroff, two prominent MSNBC personalities, were raised in the Pacific Palisades (very tony area); Soboroff reported from the smoldering ruin of his childhood home. Lawrence O'Donnell, also of MSNBC, reported that his house in the Hollywood Hills was endangered, though he candidly admitted that he was currently safe at his house in New York City.
Karen Bass, LA's mayor, is currently catching grief for being in Ghana on a diplomatic trip attending that country's presidential inauguration. Also, it seems some 17 million dollars were recently cut from city's firefighting budget — so as to increase the police budget, per the demands of current politics.
However, it's reasonable to peg climate change as the prime culprit. These Santa Ana winds were unusual in their intensity and especially in their timing. Typically January in Southern California is the time for rainstorms — or at least moisture in the air. But it hasn't rained for literally 8 months, and the next two weeks are forecast to be dry as well. We may yet see a repeat.
Live and work in Santa Monica, about six months now, inside the current red flag zone, the zone next to the exclamation point zone. California sets increasingly hard tests for the mind. I was no great fan of evolutionary psychology, but something “goes off” when one sees a large cloud that close, that big, that mix of gray and lit orange, and that amount of debris. But the true California spin is that for most of Tuesday, if we looked out the other window, it was only blue sky and sunshine. And then the brain—or could be just mine—falls quite freely into the feeling that nothing unusual is happening at all. It is very hard to believe that something is wrong, much easier to believe nothing is.
I grew up in the Pasadena area and have family here. It is not uncommon for there to be fires in the Malibu hills now and then. But the typical fires in Malibu are just up in the hills and not very residential; the hills extend way back from the ocean to open land for many miles. What is different this time is that the fire traveled down the coast into the populated, suburban area of the Palisades. This is a wealthy area as has been noted, where many elites have their homes.
But it is not only the wealthy people who've been affected. The Eaton fire in Altadena (above Pasadena near the mountains) is about 12 minutes from my house. This area includes many working-class minorities (this is also true of East La Canada). There are whole neighborhoods that are just gone now and many are displaced. It seems pretty clear that nature hasn't discriminated. I'll just add that CA is used to fires and has many services for fighting them. The big difference this time was the wind. Walking around yesterday there were still 50mph wind gusts and there's nothing one can do with that. To give some perspective, it has been estimated that the Palisades fire was moving at several football fields a minute.
I teach at Caltech and live fairly close to campus. We are a few miles south of the Eaton Fire, one of the two biggest fires in the L.A. area (there are several smaller ones as well). We were not directly threatened by the fires although we are close enough that we have a suitcase packed and ready to go. We experienced Santa Ana winds starting on Tuesday. I taught classes as normal on Tuesday as the winds gradually picked up. We lost power around 6:00 PM, and the Eaton fire began around 6:30 on Tuesday evening. We still had cellular service and could follow the progress of the fire. The fire struck and spread very rapidly, and many people had to flee their homes with little time to pack anything more than the barest essentials.
A number of factors contributed to the destructiveness. Climate whiplash — a relatively wet season followed by a prolonged drought — led to plentiful dry vegetation. The powerful dry winds downed power lines (a likely cause of some of the fires) and carried embers great distances while providing a ready source of oxygen. While the Santa Ana winds usually blow in a predictable pattern, these ones were erratic. This led to fires being spread unpredictably and in all directions. The multiple fires stretched fire-fighting resources to an extent never before seen. The winds made it impossible for aircraft to fly suppression missions for the first 24 hours or so. In the case of the Palisades fire in West L.A., water shortage was also a problem. The demand for water, coupled with a reservoir that was empty due to repairs, meant that hydrants couldn't always provide water to fire hoses.
While our home has been spared (so far) we have many friends and colleagues who have lost their homes. The fire decimated Altadena, technically an unincorporated area (part of L.A. county) just north of Pasadena. This is a suburban neighborhood with many single-family homes and small businesses. It is not a super-wealthy area full of mega-mansions. West Altadena is a historically black neighborhood, since it did not have deed restrictions. The fire has burned over 14,000 acres, approximately 22 square miles, and it is estimated that 6,000 structures have been destroyed. A census of Caltech employees has established that at least 200 (out of 2,500 employees) have lost their homes. Our sister institution, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, has probably suffered worse, since it is closer to the fire zone and more of its employees live in Altadena (and parts of La Canada, which also suffered damage). It will have a lasting long-term impact on our community.
My own inconvenience pales in comparison to those who have lost their homes. We lost a small tree to the wind, our yard is littered with debris, and a fine layer of ash and soot covers everything outside (even surfaces that had recently been swept). Air quality is horrendous, even indoors. I wear an N95 mask, so my running joke is that I am chain smoking filtered cigarettes rather than unfiltered.
Caltech was closed Wednesday and Thursday, and classes suspended Friday as well. The university has done a great job in many ways. It has regularly sent out updates, including corrections of false evacuation warnings issued by the L.A. County emergency system. (This is a story in itself. To be fair, the genuine warnings no doubt saved thousands of lives.) Grounds crew rapidly cleared debris from campus. Buildings were rapidly fitted with carbon filters to improve indoor air quality. N95 masks, air purifiers, and bottled water were supplied to students on campus. (At one point, we were told to avoid drinking tap water, although this was quickly corrected.) Dining facilities for students kept running. A fund to aid those who lost homes has been established (although I don't yet have a link for any who want to contribute).
The winds have now died down, so the imminent danger is over, but the fires continue to burn. The Eaton fire has mostly turned north into the Angeles National Forest. The destruction of such a beautiful wilderness area is a tragedy of its own, but it is preferable to the alternative. But if the winds kick up again, we will again be in a very dangerous situation.
Once the rainy season starts, burn areas will be vulnerable to mudslides. Indirect financial impact will include exacerbating the housing shortage, with rentals in particular being in immediate high demand. It is likely that insurers will stop offering fire insurance in some areas, forcing residents to go without or pay increased premiums for safety net insurance. Many businesses have been destroyed or disrupted, and many people will have lost their source of income.
The one small mercy is that so far, the number of confirmed fatalities has been very low. That may change once it becomes possible to conduct a thorough search of devastated areas.
As I noted already, I have family in Pasadena and am visiting them for a few days. We're OK but it's becoming apparent that there are many people in need around the area. I'm not sure if it's OK to post this, but if people feel like donating something this site has several options to consider. Thank you.
I think it is worth reminding ourselves how prescient and incisive (and a tad eerie) the late Mike Davis (a working class intellectual of the highest order!) was in so many respects regarding ecological and environmental questions that surround our urban, suburban, and rural modes of living suffused with a hyper-capitalist (thus class-based) land and conspicuous consumption ethos: see his Ecology of Fear (Los Angeles and the Imagination of Disaster (Metropolitan Books, 1998). I grew up in the San Fernando Valley and have old classmates and immediate and extended family members throughout the LA area (including a new granddaughter!). None of this surprises me insofar as I spent a brief period working in my youth on fire crew in Santa Barbara (with my soon-to-be spouse!), both for the U.S.F.S and a contract fire crew (largely in the Los Padres National Forest) one summer in between school quarters at UCSB. Later, I worked for a local contractor as a carpenter who rebuilt a large number of homes after the Painted Cave fire here back in 1990. The LA Times online has been an invaluable resource for quickly updated information. Incidentally, we now have smoke/haze in Santa Barbara county that has been attributed to the fires south of us. In addition to the Davis book, this Guardian piece is also helpful: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/jan/11/joan-didion-mike-davis-los-angeles-fires?CMP=share_btn_url&fbclid=IwY2xjawHv4HpleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHam8ymN1_h3GbSkZfBBHymu7SUaWB1ePouWe-xOi3QgoYO7Fc-3l6axrVA_aem_GcurxFbkypY7kJvw5LmYfQ
I think it is worth reminding ourselves how prescient and incisive (and a tad eerie) the late Mike Davis (a working class intellectual of the highest order!) was in so many respects regarding ecological and environmental questions that surround our urban, suburban, and rural modes of living suffused with a hyper-capitalist (thus class-based) land and conspicuous consumption ethos: see his Ecology of Fear (Los Angeles and the Imagination of Disaster (Metropolitan Books, 1998). I grew up in the San Fernando Valley and have old classmates and immediate and extended family members throughout the LA area (including a new granddaughter!). None of this surprises me insofar as I spent a brief period working in my youth on fire crew in Santa Barbara (with my soon-to-be spouse!), both for the U.S.F.S and a contract fire crew (largely in the Los Padres National Forest) one summer in between school quarters at UCSB. Later, I worked for a local contractor as a carpenter who rebuilt a large number of homes after the Painted Cave fire here back in 1990. The LA Times online has been an invaluable resource for quickly updated information. Incidentally, we now have smoke/haze in Santa Barbara county that has been attributed to the fires south of us. In addition to the Davis book, this Guardian piece is also helpful: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/jan/11/joan-didion-mike-davis-los-angeles-fires?CMP=share_btn_url&fbclid=IwY2xjawHv4HpleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHam8ymN1_h3GbSkZfBBHymu7SUaWB1ePouWe-xOi3QgoYO7Fc-3l6axrVA_aem_GcurxFbkypY7kJvw5LmYfQ
I would be interested if anyone has a link to studies on the health effects of short-term exposure to smoke from urban fires. I suppose it's bad enough when dry brush burns. But the enormous plumes of these fires were generated from city block after city block burning. Think of what's in all those houses and cars! Asbestos. Plenty of VOCs. And I think it's safe to assume that most people who were exposed (including me) didn't have immediate access to an N95 mask.
SoCal Reader: A childhood (and still) friend of mine, Paul English (PhD, MPH), is Director of Tracking for the Public Health Institute in Oakland, CA and they do all kinds of public health research, including that related to asthma, cancer, climate change, and wildfires & extreme heat (their science and public health remit is quite large, i.e., impressive). You might want to look through their website to see what you can find … or you can contact Paul and tell him I directed you to them for further information. Here is their website: https://www.phi.org/
And if you or any other of Brian's readers are philosophers, intellectuals, or ardent readers interested in public health issues, I have two compilations one might browse through: the first, which I have not updated in several years, is titled Health: Law, Ethics and Social Justice: https://www.academia.edu/4844029/Health_Law_Ethics_and_Social_Justice_A_Basic_Bibliography The second is on "The Parameters, Values, and Constraints of Public Health: Social Epidemiology, Ethics, and Law,": https://www.academia.edu/44125866/The_Parameters_Values_and_Constraints_of_Public_Health_Social_Epidemiology_Ethics_and_Law_a_basic_bibliography
All the best with your inquiry and investigation!
SoCal Reader: A childhood (and still) friend of mine, Paul English (PhD, MPH), is Director of Tracking for the Public Health Institute in Oakland, CA and they do all kinds of public health research, including that related to asthma, cancer, climate change, and wildfires & extreme heat (their science and public health remit is quite large, i.e., impressive). You might want to look through their website to see what you can find … or you can contact Paul and tell him I directed you to them for further information. Here is their website: https://www.phi.org/
And if you or any other of Brian's readers are philosophers, intellectuals, or ardent readers interested in public health issues, I have two compilations one might browse through: the first, which I have not updated in several years, is titled Health: Law, Ethics and Social Justice: https://www.academia.edu/4844029/Health_Law_Ethics_and_Social_Justice_A_Basic_Bibliography The second is on "The Parameters, Values, and Constraints of Public Health: Social Epidemiology, Ethics, and Law,": https://www.academia.edu/44125866/The_Parameters_Values_and_Constraints_of_Public_Health_Social_Epidemiology_Ethics_and_Law_a_basic_bibliography
All the best with your inquiry and investigation!
@Patrick S. O'Donnell, This is most helpful. Thank you!
I wrote this essay for a general audience. I had to do it very quickly and with a strict deadline. It doesn't make any great philosophical points. The main idea is psychological rather than normative. I had been thinking about why I didn't feel the visceral impact of what I was reading about these horrendous fires and their tragic consequences. I was puzzled and felt a bit guilty. In any case, fwiw, here are a few reflections. They are not deep, but I hope not (too) shallow:
https://news.ucr.edu/articles/2025/01/17/philosophers-view-tragedies-brought-la-fires
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