In case you haven’t noticed, California is in flames. Fire can be cleansing, but it can also be destructive and deadly, as it has proven to be over the past couple years.

This summer, the Southern CaliforniaAliso fire burned 175 acres, displacing thousands of homeowners in Laguna Beach and Aliso Viejo. At one point,the fire was literally across the street from my childhood home. It was a nerve-racking experience but thankfully, my home and family were both safe.

Many were not so lucky. Many California residents, including Chapman students, faculty, administration and alumni know, fires can cause devestating damage to property and ruin lives. As of Aug. 7, 16 active fires were still blazing through California and destroying wildlife and property. At this point, with so many people affected directly, I think it’s time we all acknowledge the true culprit – climate change.

The state of California was in a official state of drought for for five years until April 2017 – and dry- and-wet periods can be influenced by climate change.

This summer, the state hit record high temperatures. In nearby Santa Ana, the high was 114 degrees on July 6. In Death Valley, California, the average temperature in July was 108.1 degrees and, hit 127 degrees from July 24-27, at its highest.

These conditions can result in fires starting and spreading quickly and easily and becoming more and more difficult to contain. I am not suggesting that climate change is literally causing the fires to start, but it is creating conditions that allow these frequent and steady blazes to occur.

Over the past five years, spring snow has started to disappear more quickly, according to an Aug. 22 report by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. This means that, without the cover of snow, the surface of the Earth is exposed to sunlight more, leading to higher temperatures – which can result in flammable dry brush and vegetation in places like California.

These catastrophic fires mean that it’s more and more dangerous to discount the existence and magnitude of global climate change.
According to Gallup’s annual climate change survey, only 35 percent of Republicans and 62 percent of independents believe humans are the cause of climate change, and those statistics are down from last year.

It’s not a surprise that many have become less willing to accept the reality of climate change – President Donald Trump has discredited the scientific consensus around its existence since 2011.

As of June 2017, he had tweeted about his distrust of scientists and those who embrace the reality of climate change more than 115 times, according to Vox.

On December 28, 2017 he tweeted, “In the East, it could be the COLDEST New Year’s Eve on record. Perhaps we could use a little bit of that good old Global Warming that our Country, but not other countries, was going to pay TRILLIONS OF DOLLARS to protect against. Bundle up!”

Trump’s secretary of state in 2017 was Rex Tillerson, the CEO of oil and gas company ExxonMobil. After Tillerson was nominated for his cabinet position, his ties with the fossil fuel industry sparked protests among environmentalists.

Although Tillerson has since been replaced, the White House continues its anti-environmentalist campaign – this month, the Environmental Protection Agency announced its plan to weaken air pollution standard for the coal industry.

In order to prevent further fire damage in California, we need to fight Trump’s efforts to weaken the environmental protections that are in place to help the slow climate change. We also need to ensure that California fire departments are fully funded – which can be done by heeding fire officials’ recent request for $100 million from California lawmakers.

Voting in midterm and local elections in Novemberis also paramount. In order to protect the environment, we need to vote for leaders who support that cause. Ask your senators to vote yes on Senate Bill 833. The bill would require the Office of Emergency Services to set guidelines by July 2019 for when and how fire alerts would be sent.

And although it may seem counterproductive, we need to allow experienced fire officials the permission to prescribe controlled burns for at-risk areas, which would get rid of flammable grasses and vegetation. We should build infrastructure in places that have been affected by fires with fire-resistant material, like tempered glass.

Frequent fires like the ones that have torn through California over the past few years and burned down neighborhoods, destroyed property, killed pets and wildlife and worsened air quality. The danger of climate change is becoming more and more real, and we have to meet it head-on.