Hello, friends! America's film City, the city Los Angeles, is home to Hollywood. This city has been destroyed countless times in Hollywood films.
Sometimes there's a big earthquake, sometimes a devastating tsunami. It's destroyed by tornadoes and aliens too. This city has endured a lot in movies, but now in reality, fire has destroyed Los Angeles.
There are heart-wrenching scenes everywhere in the city. Look at this video. this is a fire tornado.
This was seen in an area known as Palisades. And then there's this scary video shot by a man who was locked in his house when the flames reached his house. "It's gonna be okay.
" "It's gonna be okay, alright? " "It's gonna be okay. " In this video, you can see that this person's house was surrounded by flames.
Thankfully, the person who recorded this video was rescued on time by the firefighters. But not everyone was lucky enough. At least 24 people have died till now.
This fire has spread across almost 40,000 acres. It's been more than a week since this fire started but even now, when I'm recording this video, this fire is still burning. More than 12,000 buildings have been burnt.
People's homes have burnt down. More than 180,000 people have been displaced. About 200,000 people have been given evacuation notices.
According to JP Morgan's estimates, this will cause a financial loss of approx $50 billion to the city of Los Angeles. This is not a standalone fire, there are multiple fires at multiple locations. On the morning of 7th January, this fire started in an area known as Palisades.
Look at the map, the same night fires broke out in Eaton and Hurst too. By 9th January, Kenneth was also engulfed in flames. As well as several other areas, including Lidia, Archer, Woodley, and Sunset were engulfed.
By the morning of 12th January, the fire at Lidia had been completely doused. and the fire at Kenneth was about 90% doused. The one at Hurst was 76% controlled.
But only 15% of the Eaton fire and only 11% of the Palisades fire were in control. The most shocking thing about this event is that it's happening in January. In January, it's winter in LA.
This month gets the highest rainfall in the year. So how did we get to such devastating wildfires? There's a conspiracy behind this.
Let's try to understand it in this video. If you look at this event only from a geographical perspective, the reason is said to be that Southern California didn't get enough rainfall this year. Leading to lower humidity, and so the vegetation dried up.
The air was too dry. Apart from this, there were strong winds, powerful offshore winds, known as the 'Santa Ana' winds. These winds made the fire weather worse.
If you look at the map of America's western coast, you will find the Rocky Mountains here. It causes low-pressure areas around California's coast. Winds are caused due to this pressure difference.
When these winds descend from the mountains, they are warmed up, and the humidity drops below 10%. Then this hot dry air makes the forest drier and increases the possibility of wildfire. Even a small fire or a spark turns into a big fire and spreads rapidly.
But the real question here is that these conditions, low rain, low humidity, dry vegetation, heavy winds what causes these conditions? There is a climate scientist, Peter Kalmus. He works at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
Earlier, he lived in Altadena, Los Angeles. But in 2022, he moved out of this place. Because he had realised that living there wasn't safe.
He wrote an article in the New York Times, in which he talked about a dark truth. He talked about some powerful people. Let's talk about that later in this video.
But the thing he understood well, was climate change. Look at this news article from January 2024. Calling 2023 the hottest year ever recorded on Earth.
The European Union's Copernicus Climate Change Service stated that since 1850, 2023 saw the highest global temperatures. And comparing it with pre-industrial times, then the average temperature is 1. 48°C higher.
The deputy director of this service said that climate records were tumbling like dominoes in 2023. This year's temperature was probably higher than any other period in the last 100,000 years. You may find this quite surprising, but the climate scientists weren't surprised.
Because they had already predicted this. The record holder year before 2023 was 2016. And 2023 broke 2016's record.
This wasn't a sudden or weird event, rather, it was the trajectory of climate change. By December 2023, the greenhouse gas levels were at record highs. Global temperatures were at record highs.
Sea level rise was at a record high. And the sea ice in Antarctica was at record low. Late in 2023, the United Nations' annual climate summit was held, COP28.
This summit focused heavily on phasing out fossil fuels. India's 12-year-old climate activist, Licypriya Kangujam managed to get on the stage at this event. She wanted the countries to stop using fossil fuels.
But when the COP29 summit was held in November 2024, we found that the promise of transitioning from fossil fuels was nothing but a false promise. Data shows that instead of coal, oil, and gas emissions decreasing in 2024, they increased by 0. 8%.
What did this result in? Look at this news article from this month. 2024 broke 2023's records.
2024 became the hottest year till now. From June 2023 to August 2024, temperatures kept breaking new records for 15 months at a stretch. NASA scientists called it an unprecedented heat streak.
United Nations talked about a global warming threshold in these summits. That no matter what, compared to pre-industrial levels, we should not let the temperature rise by more than 1. 5°C.
Because if it happens, there will be catastrophic damages. But a few days ago, in its press release the Copernicus Climate Change Service said that this threshold was crossed last year. Compared to pre-industrial levels, the temperature has already increased by more than 1.
5°C. You may be wondering why I am talking about climate change. Because according to experts, climate change's role is undeniable in the events that unfolded in Los Angeles.
October 2024 was the second hottest month ever in California. While June and July were the hottest ever months. What does this mean?
The heat in California during June and July 2024, was never seen before there. In a large part of Southern California, there was no rain after July. Everything dried up.
"Temperatures in Southern California broke 5 heat records Friday. " "And emergency rooms are busy with heat exhaustion patients. " Then, a few months later, the Santa Ana winds started blowing, which made the forest even drier.
"That air descent leads to warming and compression," "that also dries the air out significantly. " "And that wind can spread pre-existing fires. " Now, it is important to understand one thing, wildfires are not always caused by humans.
Wildfires can ignite naturally too. In fact, there are some ecosystems too, plants and animals which have evolved to be dependant on periodic fires to maintain ecological balance. Such as conifer trees, they have a thick bark.
Or prairie grass, which stores most of its biomass underground. There are some plants which are dependent on the heat. to help their seeds germinate underground.
Or for their buds to turn into fruits. These infrequent wildfires can clear out dead organic material. When there's a build-up of dead or decaying plants on the ground, the organisms within the soil may be unable to access the nutrients.
This can prevent the outgrowth of new smaller plants. In such a situation, when the dead plants and animals burn in this wildfire, nutrients are released into the soil from the burnt material. This way, the nutrients are released faster instead of decaying gradually.
This is why, many times, humans often carry out prescribed burns or controlled burns. We intentionally orchestrate wildfire in a controlled way so that the ecology can benefit from it. This is a scientific field in itself.
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Do check it out, and now let's get back to our topic. If we talk about the California region, wildfires have been common there. During summers, there are dry weather conditions with the wind blowing.
So normally, from May-June to October, there can be a fire. The triggers behind this fire can be natural causes or man-made. Natural causes can be like a lightning strike.
This is the most common cause of wildfires. In terms of man-made causes, it could be a roadside ignition. A fire that sparked in a vehicle.
If a machinery hits a rock, it can cause sparks and later a fire. Or sometimes the strong winds can lead to power lines swaying. Igniting sparks.
There can be other direct man-made causes as well. People go camping, light their campfire, but forget to put it out. The National Park Service of America stated that 85% of the wildfires in their country are caused by a human trigger.
An audit in 2022 in California revealed that the electrical grids need a lot of improvements to reduce the risk of wildfires. The fire raging in Palisades now, is said to have been triggered by the firecrackers used in New Year. The exact cause is still under investigation, but the firecrackers are considered a major suspect.
But the problematic thing here is that along with human triggers, there is a direct disruption caused by climate change. This is why the natural wildfires over the last decade, are not a part of any natural ecosystem. The timing of the wildfire in January, its intensity and the damage it caused, makes it clear that its root cause is climate change.
Things will only get worse in the future. In 2021, a study was published in the PNAS Journal said that the days when there is a higher chance of a fire igniting, the number of such fire-weather days in California, has risen from 66% to 90% over the last few decades. Such extreme wildfires that spread over more than 10,000 acres, their frequency in California has increased by 25% compared to pre-industrial times.
This was stated by a study published in the science journal Nature. If we look at the California Fire Department's data, about the most devastating wildfires, then, in the list of the top 10, 8 wildfires are from 2017 to 2024. Over the last few years.
This shows that not only are many situations caused by human triggers, but overall, less rain, dry vegetation, and being more flammable, all of these are directly influenced by human-caused climate change. Whether the government understood this or not, but Peter Kalmus, a climate scientist, whom I mentioned previously in this video, took this to be a clear sign that the situation is getting worse. Peter was living in Altadena, a small town in Los Angeles since 2008.
He says that this place was like heaven at that time. There was a huge avocado tree in his backyard with its fruit he used to make unlimited guacamole dips. There would be flocks of green parrots chirping about.
Nearby, in Pasadena, there were the perfect green lawns of California Tech there he would lie down with his kids. But the Earth was getting hotter. And by 2012, it couldn't be ignored any longer.
And so he decided to change his field. Earlier his work was related to gravitational waves, now his work is related to climate science. He works at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
He wanted to draw people's attention to climate change's urgent threat. He volunteered with local climate groups. He gave climate talks at many parts of the city while riding a cycle.
He wrote articles in newspapers and tweeted on Twitter. He was also the co-founder of a non-profit climate app and climate media group. But he was helpless against the agenda of a few billionaires.
In September 2020, during an intense heatwave, Peter felt heat exhaustion for the first time. The next day, a fierce fire broke out a few miles away. This was named Bobcat Fire.
With his family, he was surrounded by clouds of smoke over the next few weeks. There was a burning sensation in their lungs and a constant tingling in their fingers. After that day, he suspected that his neighbourhood would also be a victim of a fierce wildfire someday.
That day he decided that they can't stay there any longer. They had to leave that place. In 2022, his wife got a job in North Carolina and the family moved there.
He says that though he knew that there'd be a fire someday, but he never imagined that it would be so fierce. In the news, he saw the pet hospital he used to visit for his dog was burnt. The church where he used to take his boys for recitals, was burnt.
The coffee shop where he used to meet his friends and climate activists, got burnt. Nothing was left of the hardware store or the bunny museum near where he lived. His old neighbour messaged him to say that the house he used to live in, was burnt to the ground.
This brought Peter to tears. Peter says that the Apocalypse is already here. If not for all, then for those who have lost something in climate disasters.
No place is entirely safe. There were deadly fires in Hawaii in 2023. The 2021 Heat Dome in the Pacific Northwest.
The Hurricane Helene in North Carolina last year. Apart from America, there have been wildfires in Australia. Oasis are disappearing in Morocco.
There are floods in Dubai. And even in India, summers are becoming hotter and more and more unbearable. Peter says that until we are enraged at this, nothing will change.
And you will be enraged, when you will find out the truth about who is suffering and who is benefiting from it. Who caused this? Look at this report from last year.
Since 2016, of the total greenhouse gas emissions globally, 80% of it is emitted by only 57 companies. Only 57 companies are responsible for most of the climate change in the world. Which companies are these?
These are multibillion-dollar multinational companies that sell oil, gas, and coal. America's Exxon Mobil, Shell, BP, Chevron, Total Energies. These are the private companies, but there are some government companies on this list too.
At the top is China's state-owned coal company. Saudi Arabia's Saudi Aramco, Russia's Gazprom, Iran's National Iranian Oil, India's Coal India, Mexico's Pemex. And the amazing part is that these private companies in America knew 50 years ago that their operations would cause irreversible climate change on Earth.
Despite knowing this, the CEO's of these companies, their lobbyists, their lawyers, spread disinformation and lies, to hamper the growth of renewable energy. They used their money to pay politicians all over the world. I am not saying this, this is what Peter claims.
It sounds like a conspiracy theory. But there is solid evidence backing this claim. Last year, climate investigator Rebecca John uncovered some old documents.
Some of these documents were in the US National Archives, some in the University of California, and some of them were newspapers printed in Los Angeles in the 1950s. These documents reveal that the fossil fuel industry funded the Air Pollution Foundation. A famous climate scientist, Charles Keeling, his early research was funded by them.
Charles Keeling worked in a laboratory in Hawaii and made a setup to constantly measure global carbon dioxide. His Keeling's Curve shows the progressive build-up of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Back then, Los Angeles had a problem with smog.
Research effort into it was funded by the fossil fuel industry. Apart from the fossil fuel industry, a coalition of oil and car manufacturers gave funds to Charles Keeling for research. These documents show that the research done back then had already revealed that large-scale carbon dioxide emissions would have planetary implications.
Things that we studied in our school textbooks, that "emissions are caused by burning fossil fuels," "greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide trap heat," and it "causes global warming. " The industry had known about this danger since 1954. But still, they continued the exploitation of fossil fuels to make more and more money.
The managers of these companies already knew the danger they were pushing the world into. I want to ask you, shouldn't they be arrested and charged with genocide? A 1959 memo shows that America's leading oil and gas lobbying body, American Petroleum Institute and Western Oil and Gas Association were funding the Air Pollution Foundation at that time.
Right in 1955, a policy statement of the Air Pollution Foundation stated that, for California or any other urban area, air pollution is the most serious issue. There is no proof of Charles Keeling suppressing his research for money. But there is undeniable proof that for decades, this industry continued to publicly deny climate science.
They chose the path of lies and fraud. Not only that, they also funded to delay all action on the climate crisis. There was a clear business model here.
A 2016 investigation revealed that Exxon Mobil and other companies had patented the technology of electric cars and low-emission vehicles back in 1963. The patent records showed that they were researching for a technology that was supposed to reduce the carbon dioxide emissions. This shows that they knew that CO2 emissions were a threat to the world.
But at the same time, they were lobbying to prevent government funding for such research. For years, they kept saying that there's no such thing as climate change. That things aren't getting worse because of humans.
It was only in 2008 that they stopped denying climate change. Finally, they accepted that there's human-caused climate change. Had these companies taken appropriate action 50 years earlier, the present situation wouldn't have occurred.
In 2021, during a historic hearing of the Committee on Oversight and Accountability fossil fuel executives admitted that climate crisis is an urgent threat. But their decades of false narratives, they refused to take any responsibility for it. In his article in The Guardian, Peter Kalmus writes that if we want to protect ourselves from the climate crisis, we have to protect ourselves from the billionaire class.
We already have the option of solar energy but these billionaires are blocking this transition as well. They cite the example of the Mountain Valley Pipeline project. A pipeline project in America which wouldn't be the right thing to do from the perspective of climate change, activists had protested to get it shut down.
But a company paid Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer $300,000 and this project was revived. This model of paying to influence government policies works shamelessly and quite dangerously in America. That was the Democrat Party.
Their other main party, the Republican Party, to help Donald Trump and other Republican candidates win, Elon Musk spent $277 million. It's only 0. 06% of his wealth.
But it was enough to reverse the election. While talking to the channel Democracy Now! , Peter said that we need to stop this stupid war and deal with this emergency that our planet is becoming less habitable.
"Our planet is in the process of becoming" "less and less habitable. " In terms of politicians, he called out the two recent US Presidents from the Democratic Party, President Biden and President Obama, both were proud of the fact that they expanded the use of fossil fuels. On the other hand, now that Donald Trump, a Republican is in the office, he gaslights people and says that it is all a hoax.
"Both the Democratic Presidents, President Obama and President Biden, they were very proud to expand fossil fuel, we have a Republican President coming into Office, who says (that) this is a hoax. who's gaslighting the people who are following him. " Peter asks when will Trump's supporters open their eyes and see that the planet is becoming inhabitable.
When will they stop listening to this person who calls climate change a hoax. Peter suggests that we have to adopt the path of civil disobedience all over the world. First, he says that we'd need to hurt the social license of these billionaires.
We have to take away the power they wield. Only when we do this, will we be able to find the solutions to problems like climate crisis and healthcare crisis. And make the world a better place.
If you are watching this video from America, I would ask you to join Peter Kalmus and other climate activists' movement. We need to ensure that our lifestyle is sustainable. That is important too.
But the biggest problem here include these billionaires at the top and these big companies. On a personal level, the number of trees we plant barely matters, the cleanliness around us barely matters, because these people at the top of the hierarchy can pay the politicians to pass such laws which would destroy our environment. I would like to show you some of the news headlines from last year.
For the Kanwar Yatra in Uttar Pradesh, UP government planned to chop down 112,000 trees. For the Great Nicobar Project, on this island in Nicobar, up to 10 million trees can be cu, according to this environmentalist. The previous estimate was 850,000 trees.
In August 2024, in Hasdeo, Chhattisgarh, 250,000 trees were supposed to be cut for coal mining. In September 2024, in Rajasthan's Conservation Reserve, the Rajasthan Government permitted 100,000 trees to be cut, for a power project. That's why it is crucial for this lobbying model to come to an end, if we want to prevent future destruction.
If you live in these states, near in these areas, voice your objection and protest. The Madhya Pradesh government was about to cut more than 27000 trees in Bhopal to build VVIP housing for MLAs. But then people protested, and look at this news from 17th June 2024, the government has cancelled this plan.
So it does make a difference. Wherever you are, however you are, you should try as much as you can. I hope that this video was informative as always.
If you want to know more about climate change, I have talked about it in more detail in the Heatwave video. You can click here to watch it. You can find the link to purchase the ChatGPT course in the description and the pinned comment.
Don't forget to use the coupon code FIRE45 Thank you very much!
