The L.A. Fires: How They Happened, Climate Change’s Role, and What the City Must Do Now

Plain English with Derek Thompson

With so many confusing narratives unfolding around a fire that is still raging out of control, I wanted to talk to somebody I knew and trusted to get stories like this right. Robinson Meyer is the founder and editor of Heatmap News and a former staff writer at The Atlantic, where he covered climate news and related disasters. We talk about why this Los Angeles fire is so unusual, how it differs from most recent forest fires in California, the role of climate change, and what Los Angeles and other places can do to protect people from the inevitability of future disasters.

If you have questions, observations, or ideas for future episodes, email us at [e-mail].

Host: Derek Thompson

Guest: Robinson Meyer

Producer: Devon Baroldi

Links:

• Could More Controlled Burns Have Helped?
• 5 Startups Working on LA Fires
• What Started The Fires?
• Why LA’s Fires Are Exceptionally Hard to Fight
• Does climate change make the Santa Ana winds worse?

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