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California seems to be moving towards a new norm of wet winters and dry summers that makes wildfires more likely. The wet winters allow water to fill streams and head down the Sierra Nevada’s encouraging vegetation growth. As the weather becomes hot and dry that vegetation becomes dry and brittle and any small spark has the potential to ignite a wildfire.

Population Growth pushing into dry areas

Wildfires are part of nature. They would occur with or without human intervention, but nowhere near as often. We’ve created a perfect storm of conditions that lead to these fires. Global warming may be the main culprit, but overpopulation is having its effect as well. Development is pushing the boundaries of urban areas in California into areas that are vulnerable to wildfires.

Costs of Expansion

As people move into these vulnerable areas the probability of fires increase. Sometimes it’s a campfire, other times it’s a spark from a backfiring car, but often its downed powerlines that are to blame. Major utilities should be doing more to make their transmission lines safer, instead of concentrating on profits at all costs.

Removing the monopoly control of these large energy companies over supply and transmission is a good first step. With companies like Bay Area Energy leading the way, we are making some progress, but more needs to be done. Government needs to encourage these cleaner alternative energy companies through progressive legislation as well.

Adopting clean, renewable energy can help to slow down climate change and potentially reverse it over the long term. There’s hope that we’re not at the point of no return yet, but time is running out. Reversing climate change will take the efforts of all stakeholders including government agencies, major corporations, and individual citizens.