The Woolsey Fire was among the most destructive events in Southern California’s history, engulfing nearly 96,949 acres across Los Angeles and Ventura Counties, destroying or damaging over 1,800 structures, killing at least three people, and causing billions of dollars in damages and economic impact. As Woolsey raged, about 500 miles north the Camp Fire wreaked even more havoc, a simultaneous disaster that dramatically overwhelmed communities in Butte County. The response and relief effort to manage events like these is complicated and costly. Getting the Woolsey Fire to 100% containment required dedicated resources from 16 coordinating agencies and millions of dollars in special expenses. Community recovery from this event is still ongoing and will take years—even decades—and will cost billions of dollars. 

Unfortunately, these fires are relatively small expressions of a broader trend toward hotter, drier, and more extreme heat and wildfire events. Fire season is becoming longer. The Fourth National Climate Assessment identifies this issue for the southwest as among the most pressing, and data on both scale and cost of these events is trending upwards year over year. Of the 20 most destructive fires in state history according to Cal Fire, 13 occurred over the past five years.

The fall 2019 and 2020 fires are another stark reminder of the urgency of preparing for future wildfire events not only in Southern California, but across the state. In 2019, historically strong Santa Ana winds responsible for wildfire spread ultimately led to unprecedented utility blackouts. And in what was dubbed the most active season on record, the 2020 season raged in Southern California until late December. Overall, Cal Fire reported that fires scorched more than 4.2 million acres in the state during 2020 alone, with five of the state’s six largest fires on record in terms of acreage having occurred within the year.

But wildfires are not the only urgent challenge affecting the greater Los Angeles region. The region faces other climate-driven shocks and stresses, like flooding, sea level rise, and extreme heat, as well as seismic risks. Longstanding stresses, particularly those related to affordability and inequality, manifest themselves on an everyday basis for Californians as the affordable housing and homelessness crisis has become more acute. These everyday stresses are particularly exacerbated during wildfires and other shocks—when the most vulnerable Californians bear a disproportionate burden.

COVID-19 and the compounding challenges of 2020 have brought to bear the interrelated nature of these shocks and stresses more than ever, making even more clear the urgent need to build resilience to future risks and challenges. As in other areas across the United States, the global pandemic continues to ravage the region. To date, Los Angeles County has tragically lost many tens of thousands of residents. Across the region, Latinx, Black, and Pacific Islander residents are dying at twice the rate of their white neighbors, laying bare racial disparities in health, as in other regions across the United States. Further, the pandemic’s ensuing economic effects—including poverty and unemployment—have served as the backdrop for ongoing racial injustice protests as Los Angeles became an epicenter of the Black Lives Matter movement decrying institutional racism. Overall, undoing these layered disparities requires a renewed focus on interdependencies connecting health and wellbeing, economy, the environment, and society.