The fire triangle helps determine who caused the fires

Toyon is a plant native to Southern California. It’s hardy and needs no watering. It’s slow growing, but can grow to be a small tree, or can easily be pruned to remain small. It’s also non-flammable and can serve as a fire barrier, even after having no water for months.

A spark in the chaparral on a normal, damp, cool, calm January day in Southern California isn’t too dangerous. It might cause some smoldering and then get extinguished if it doesn’t go out on its own. 

The fire triangle helps explain why things came out differently this week. Fires need three elements to ignite: heat, fuel, and an oxidizing agent. With record high winds (effectively increasing the oxidizer) and extreme drought (increasing the fuel combustibility), both caused by climate change, the conditions for a conflagration were in place. Given that burning fossil fuels caused the climate change that increased 2 of the 3 elements for fire, fossil fuels were the number one cause of the fires. The sparks that started each fire are the number two cause. Sparks are common, conflagrations that consume entire towns are not common, or at least weren’t common before we hit 400 PPM CO2. This is the first time I’ve had a bunch of my friends who all lost their homes to fire at the same time. 

It should be said that fossil fuels caused the fires, not climate change or arson or electrical malfunctions. When Sam loses control of his car and slams into a telephone pole and dies, I don’t say “Sam was killed by a telephone pole”. Failing to say fossil fuels caused the fires is done by the commercial media to protect the polluters who buy their advertising. 

Don’t blame the climate. The climate didn’t ask us to burn fossil fuels. The climate has no other way to respond to all that CO2. Blame Reagan, blame Trump, blame McConnell, but don’t blame a victim. 

Please take action. Let’s stop burning fossil fuels. Let’s be leaders.