In contrast to most politicians beliefs, the California wildfires are caused by poor forest management, improper environmental policies, and natural climate patterns. 

There is no denying that these fires have been a big issue for many on the West Coast. As of November 18, 2020, over 9 thousand fires have burned over 4 million acres of California, and according to Cal Fire. 31 California residents have lost their lives due to the fires. Taking these statistics in account, 2020 is the largest wildfire season ever recorded in California’s history. 

California governor Gavin Newsom believes that these natural disasters are due to climate change. “CLIMATE. CHANGE. IS. REAL.” tweeted Newsom while comparing the amount, as well as the effects of these fires to the previous years. However, critics say otherwise. Michael Shellenberger is the founder of the organization Environmental Progress. “All of this catastrophizing around climate change is just a huge distraction,” says Shellenberger in an interview with John Stossel. “It’s not our most serious environmental problem,” he adds.

It is very true that climate change is still a problem that needs to be addressed somehow. However, that doesn’t mean that it is an apocalyptic level threat, and it also does not mean that it is the biggest cause of the fire. There are many more factors one must consider when looking for the cause of these fires.

Part of the blame for these devastating fires is California’s climate in general. “In even the wettest years (2016-17 was the wettest in 122 years) much of California is bone-dry by late fall. Thus, it isn’t climate change that sets the conditions for fires—it’s California’s natural weather pattern.” 

Another cause of the forest fires is California’s government. This state government has made policies to prevent logging operations that remove forest overgrowth. This means that if a fire starts, it will be much harder to stop because of all the new brush and overgrowth in their forests. As a result, one of the best ways for California to reduce the destruction of their forest’s is to properly manage them. If the California government were to focus on clearing out brush and dead trees from their forests, many of their problems could be solved.

Dealing with forest fires is not a new experience for America. In fact, early explorers from Europe noticed that Native Americans would intentionally create controlled forest fires to burn down parts of their forest’s. Starting multiple small and controlled fires are essential to the keep up of the amount of brush and overgrowth in a forest. Once again if all of this was completed in California, they could have much more control over the fires currently laying waste to sections of their state. 

Furthermore, forests that were already being managed properly have survived the 2020 megafires. Larger sized trees in forests managed by utility company Southern California Edison remain standing. “The fire comes up to SCE land, drops to the ground, & stays out of the tree crowns,” says Jared Dahl Aldern, a forest historian. 

These recent fires finally convinced California’s government to allow logging operations to take place. Hopefully this can help California

to get back on track in controlling their fires.