What Caused the Recent Fires in LA?

What caused the recent fires in LA?

I don’t know.

On social media, I’ve seen multiple posts linking the fires to climate change. And in the comments, those claims have been vehemently refuted.

It’s another example of the increasing polarisation we see around us - the simplification of a deeply complex situation into either/or.

The reality is almost certainly [because absolute certainty is a dangerous thing] that the fires are a combination of …

Rising temperatures

AND government failure

AND drought

AND campfires

AND high winds

AND urban expansion

AND build up of dry vegetation

AND power lines

AND human activity

AND a whole bunch of other things that I don’t even know about

AND AND AND

… and you get the idea.

It’s worth being wary of anyone offering ‘The Solution To This Problem’ or ‘The Definitive Reason This Happened’.

It probably isn’t the whole story …