As Climate-Fueled Wildfires Worsen, Communities Wrestle With Paying the Costs

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By Karen Savage, Climate Docket. Originally published on Climate Docket.

Pennie Opal Plant spent much of last weekend anxiously scanning the horizon for smoke from Californiaโ€™s growing wildfires, packing and repacking treasured items into her car, and trying to decide which to bring if she needed toย evacuate.

Plant, the co-founder of Idle No More SF Bay, a group led by Indigenous women dedicated to climate activism, is no stranger to climate-fueled disasters, including Californiaโ€™s growing wildfire crisis. But for the first time ever, Plant was preparing to flee from the flames at a momentโ€™s notice. She has lived in her home in Richmond for more than 20ย years.

She left once last year because of the smokeโ€”Plant and her husband both have respiratory conditions โ€” but this was different. This time she was afraid if they left, sheโ€™d never see her homeย again.ย 

โ€œI wanted to make sure that we all photographed everything, if we lose everything, hereโ€™s what we had, so proof for the insurance company,โ€ Plantย said.ย 

Fortunately for Plant, her husband, daughter and grandson who live with her, the immediate threat โ€” lightning embedded in the remnants of Hurricane Genevieve that could have sparked an inferno in the dry canyon below โ€” neverย materialized.

But hundreds of thousands of Californians who have been forced to flee their homes havenโ€™t been so lucky. A record-breaking heatwave, exceptionally dry conditions and lightning from a rare thunderstorm โ€” all made worse by climate change and happening during the COVID-19 pandemic โ€” have fueled some of Californiaโ€™s largestย wildfires.

The economic costs associated with the 2020 fires are still unknown, but by all estimates, the amount spent by municipalities to contain the fires isย staggering.ย 

โ€œAnd thatโ€™s not the total fire cost,โ€ said fire ecologist Robert W. Gray, adding that wildfires costย far moreย than the taxpayers often realize because the costs donโ€™t happen all atย once.ย ย 

ย โ€œColorado is still paying for the damages theย Hayman Fireย from 2002 did to its watershed โ€” so the costs are really quite significant,โ€ย  Gray said. โ€œInfrastructure damages can occur up to a decade afterward because weโ€™ve taken vegetation off the site, we have a significant rainfall event on a burn scar, and out comes theย watershed.โ€

To recoup costs for wildfires and other climate change-related impacts, several California municipalities, including Plantโ€™s hometown of Richmond, as well as the cities of Imperial Beach, and Santa Cruz, and the counties of Marin, San Mateo, and Santa Cruz have filed climate liability lawsuits against Chevron, Exxon, Shell, Citgo, ConocoPhillips, and dozens of other fossil fuel companies inย 2017.

Nearly a dozen other municipalities across the country have filed similar suits, including San Francisco and Oakland; and the Colorado counties of Boulder and San Miguel and the city of Boulder, which filed suit against ExxonMobil and Suncor inย 2018.

The specifics vary by municipality, but all accuse the companies of multiple state law violations, including violations of state public nuisance laws. They allege the companies have known for decades that their products cause climate change but deliberately hid the truth from the public to protect theirย profits.ย 

The cities and counties reeling under the impacts of climate change are seeking compensation for climate-related damages and for mitigation needed to protect their communities from wildfires and other future harms, including sea level rise, flooding, rising temperatures, extreme storms, and a host of other climateย impacts.

Urgency Grows Moreย Obvious

The fires currently scorching California and Colorado are the most obvious signals that the impacts of climate change are already tangible, deadly and costly. While major media coverage rarely mentions climateโ€™s role in the worsening wildfires, scientists have noย doubt.

Rising temperatures result in earlier snowmelt. The earlier the snow melts, the earlier the ground dries, which in turn dries the forests and vegetation that fuel fires. Higher temperatures increase evaporation, exacerbating theย problem.

In the western U.S., climate change isย responsibleย for more than half of the increasingly dry and flammable vegetation since the 1970s and has doubled the total area impacted by wildfires sinceย 1984.

โ€œWe have longer fire seasons now, so weโ€™re staying hotter, dryer longer into the year,โ€ Gray said. โ€œIn the western U.S., the fire season has grown by about 90 days now โ€” certainly California seems to be almost year aroundย now.โ€

Drier fuels burn hotter and are harder to put out, meaning municipalities must devote more resources into putting them out. As the season lengthens, firefighters grow tired and fewer resources are available, which makes them particularly dangerous, Grayย explained.

Warmer nighttime temperatures are also making the fires moreย dangerous.

โ€œTwenty, thirty years ago, you had kind of nine-hour burning periods during the day, but nowโ€“because you donโ€™t get any temperature and [relative humidity] recovery โ€” youโ€™re getting 12, 13-hour burning periods each day,โ€ Gray said. โ€œThese are all pretty much attributed to that increase in temperature in the atmosphere, all due to climateย change.โ€

Even if the world were to shift away from all fossil fuels today, it would take decades for the threat of wildfires to subside. In the meantime, municipalities are faced with the daunting task of mitigating that threat to protect theirย residents.

For individuals, that meansย incorporatingย fire and ember-resistant construction materials, using landscaping that is less conducive to the spread of fires and otherย measures.

For municipalities, that means carefully managing public infrastructure, as well as limiting the amount of fuel available to fires by conducting small, low-intensity controlled burns and removing dry vegetation and woody material, Grayย explained.

In short, it requires money, which is in short supply for municipalities struggling to contain both current wildfires and the spread of COVID-19.

Dangerousย Air

The dangers also lie beyond the path of the firesย themselves.ย 

This year Boulder County has had more than 40 โ€œOzone Action Days,โ€ indicating low air quality that can put residentsโ€™ health atย risk.ย 

Alarming spikes in the countyโ€™s ground-level ozone readings over the past month have been attributed to โ€œsmoke wavesโ€ containing fine particulates from nearby wildfires, combined with emissions from the burning of fossilย fuels.ย 

โ€œA mixture of air pollution from the use of fossil fuels during activities such as driving, heating and cooling, electricity generation, and manufacturing โ€” in addition to emissions from oil and gas production โ€” contribute to the high ozone levels weโ€™re seeing now,โ€ Collin Tomb, the air quality team lead at Boulder County Public Health said in aย statement.

Cindy Copeland, an air quality specialist at Boulder County Public Health echoed what Gray, other fire experts and climate scientists have been warning the public for years; climate change is creating a โ€œnewย normal.โ€

โ€œBecause of climate change, wildfires are becoming more part and parcel of daily life in Colorado during the summer and shouldnโ€™t be discounted as exceptional events,โ€ Copelandย said.

Even alone, fine particulates can cause burning eyes, runny nose, and bronchitis. They are especiallyย hazardousย to seniors, children and residents with respiratoryย issues.ย 

Back in California, Andres Soto, a community organizer in Richmond, Calif. with the environmental advocacy group Communities for a Better Environment, is concerned because that overlaps with those who are most vulnerable to COVID-19.ย 

โ€œA lot of people were distributing masks during the past fire experiences, especially N95โ€™s,โ€ Soto said, adding that effective masks are in short supply this year, leaving community membersย unprotected.ย 

โ€œWe know from the analysis that most of this is fine particulate matter of combusted materials, particularly trees and grasses, but thatโ€™s not allโ€”when houses burn, when vehicles burn, when gas line burst, thereโ€™s all types of hydrocarbons and other dangerous chemicals,โ€ Sotoย said.ย 

Cindy Copeland, an air quality specialist at Boulder County Public Health, said experts and climate scientists have been ringing this alarm bell forย years.

โ€œBecause of climate change, wildfires are becoming more part and parcel of daily life in Colorado during the summer and shouldnโ€™t be discounted as exceptional events,โ€ Copelandย said.

Compensation forย Harm

Left to pay the bills for these disasters and their public health impacts, communities have begun targeting the industry that overwhelmingly has driven global warming: the fossil fuel industry. The lawsuits began in earnest in 2017 and now number more than 20. A few have suffered judicial setbacks, but most are proceeding in state courts where they wereย filed.ย 

The companies have tried repeatedly to get the suits dismissed by arguing the suits belong in federal court, where they have been more successful in winning them in the past. So far, the various federal circuits have rejected those efforts, but the companies continue to file appeals and motions to halt theย suits.

While the Colorado suit is currently proceeding in state court, suits filed by Richmond, Imperial Beach, and Santa Cruz, and the counties of Marin, San Mateo, and Santa Cruz are on hold awaiting an attempt by the oil giants to convince the U.S. Supreme Court to weighย in.

That fossil fuel companies have gone to such lengths to avoid responsibility for their role in climate change comes as no surprise to Isabella Zizi, a 23-year-old member of Idle No More SF Bay and a member of the Northern Cheyenne, Arikara and Muscogee Creekย Nations.

โ€œBusiness as usual has continued through the pandemic, and it continues through the wildfires,โ€ said Zizi, who was motivated to become a climate activist after Chevronโ€™s Richmond refineryย exploded in 2012, with thousands in her community needing medical treatment for respiratoryย issues.

โ€œI not only have to deal with the pollution of the fossil industry, but I also have to deal with the pollution of the wildfire,โ€ Ziza said, adding that sheโ€™s suffered from headaches and sinus problems from theย fires.

โ€œThe fossil fuel industry is one of the key industries that has played a huge role in climate change โ€” Exxon knew that back in the 1960s, they knew that if they continued business as usual, that it will indeed cause a major decline of our climate and they continued,โ€ Ziziย said.

The reaction of the fossil fuel companiesโ€™ to the lawsuits shows the mindset of their executives and corporate management teams, according toย Plant.ย ย 

โ€œThey have serious problems,โ€ Plant said. โ€œWho in their right mind would do anything that destroyed the future for their own childrenโ€™s childrenโ€™sย children?โ€

Main image: Sign warning of extreme fire danger on August 20, 2020 in Vacaville, California, during the LNU Lightning Complex Fire, a cluster of fires that forced tens of thousands of people to evacuate their homes. Credit:ย U.S. Air Force/Nicholas Pilch, publicย domain

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