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Climate

A very large elephant and a wind turbine.
Sparks

Trump’s Offshore Wind Ban Is Coming, Congressman Says

Though it might not be as comprehensive or as permanent as renewables advocates have feared, it’s also “just the beginning,” the congressman said.

Climate

What Started the Fires in Los Angeles?

Plus 3 more outstanding questions about this ongoing emergency.

Green
Politics

AM Briefing: High Stakes Hearings

On tough questioning from the Senate, LA’s fires, and EV leases

Yellow
Los Angeles fire destruction.

What You Need to Know About the Still-Burning L.A. Fires

With the ongoing disaster approaching its second week, here’s where things stand.

A firefighter in Los Angeles.

The Wind Forecast Brings New Worries in L.A.

Exhausted firefighters are unlikely to catch a break just yet.

Climate

Could More Controlled Burns Have Stopped the L.A. Fires?

They can be an effective wildfire prevention tool — but not always.

A burning match and a forest.
<p>Heatmap Illustration/Getty Images</p>

Once the fires stop burning in Los Angeles and the city picks itself up from the rubble, the chorus of voices asking how such a disaster could have been prevented will rise. In California, the answer to that desperate query is so often “better forestry management practices,” and in particular “more controlled burns.” But that’s not always the full story, and in the case of the historically destructive L.A. fires, many experts doubt that prescribed burns and better vegetation management would have mattered much at all.

Controlled burns are intentionally set and supervised by land managers to clear out excess fuels such as shrubs, trees, and logs to reduce wildfire risk. Many habitats also require fire to thrive, and so ensuring they burn in a controlled manner is a win-win for natural ecosystems and the man-made environment. But controlled burns also pose a series of challenges. For one, complex permitting processes and restrictions around when and where burns are allowed can deter agencies from attempting them. Community backlash is also an issue, as residents are often concerned about air quality as well as the possibility of the prescribed fires spiraling out of control. Land management agencies also worry about the liability risks of a controlled burn getting out of hand.

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Climate

The L.A. Misinformation Firestorm

The human mind can’t handle this being just a fire.

Los Angeles fire misinformation.
<p>Heatmap Illustration/Getty Images</p>

Almost no city in the country is destroyed more often than Los Angeles. America’s second-biggest city has been flattened, shaken, invaded, subsumed by lava, and calved off into the sea dozens of times on screen over the years; as the filmmaker and critic Thom Andersen has said, “Hollywood destroys Los Angeles because it’s there.”

But, understandably, when this destruction leaps from Netflix to a newscast, it’s an entirely different horror to behold. The L.A. County fires have now collectively burned an area more than twice the size of Manhattan; more than 10,000 businesses and homes that were standing last weekend are now ash. Officially, 10 people have died, but emergency managers have warned the public to brace for more. “It looks like an atomic bomb dropped in these areas. I don’t expect good news, and we’re not looking forward to those numbers,” Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna said in a late Thursday press conference.

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