Letter to the Editor: How Many More Cities Must Burn?

According to the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s Sixth Assessment Report, at 1.5C of global heating, Southern California is projected to experience hotter days, drier soil, and heavier rain, all of which increase the likelihood of extreme weather events and wildfire. We are currently at 1.4C of global heating.

Step outside and you will find that the weather has become increasingly erratic. Over the last two years, we experienced significantly higher rainfall (43.13 and 30.32 inches in 2022 and 2023 respectively; on average, 20.08 inches), followed by a prolonged dry spell lasting seven months (0.07 inches; on average, 5.79 inches). Scientists call this “hydroclimate whiplash.” This led to a significant build up of vegetation, which, over the last seven months, dried out Eaton Canyon and our communities, turning them into a well-supplied tinderbox. When unusual hurricane force Santa Ana winds hit, all it took was a spark.

According to World Weather Attribution, the Eaton Fire was 35% more probable due to the warming effects that burning fossil fuels has had on our climate. Since at least the 1980s, fossil fuel companies such as Exxon knew that the foundation of their business model, the products that they extracted, refined, distributed, and sold, was significantly contributing to global heating. For decades, the fossil fuel industry covered it up by what a joint report by the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability and the Senate Committee on the Budget describes as “Big Oil’s deception campaign,” “the extensive efforts undertaken by fossil fuel companies to deceive the public and investors about their knowledge of the effects of their products on climate change and to undermine efforts to curb greenhouse gas emissions.”

Despite the fossil fuel industry knowing that their product was causing global heating, they continued to push their product and made us dependent upon an abundant source of dense dispatchable energy. They piped it into our homes for heating and cooking, into our cars and buses for transportation, and then they sold us coal and gas to generate our electricity. Now, after locking us into fossil fuel dependency, they shift the burden and responsibility onto individuals for using that infrastructure by coining terms like “carbon footprint.”

Despite all of this, and the fact that the use of fossil fuels contributed to the conditions linked to increased wildfire risk at the time of the Eaton Fire, which forced thousands of members of our community to become climate refugees, we are still using fossil fuels to power our city.

How many more cities must burn before we cut them off?

Two years ago this Thursday, the Pasadena City Council made a decision, one of the most daring of any city in this country: it unanimously enacted Resolution 9977 declaring a climate emergency and setting a goal to source 100% of the city’s electricity from carbon free sources by 2030.

Their decision came after the Pasadena Unified School District Board of Education unanimously adopted Resolution 2690, and the Associated Students of Pasadena City College and the Board of Trustees of Pasadena City College unanimously adopted Resolution 753, all recognizing the climate emergency and urging local action to source 100% carbon free electricity by 2030. It came after over 300 people rallied outside city hall and delivered 1,500 postcards urging them to do so; postcards showing an image of the hills above Pasadena in flames. It came after 22 Pasadena-based organizations came together to form PASADENA 100 with the sole purpose of achieving this goal.

Their decision came because our city stood united in solidarity in the face of the threat we all knew was coming.

Their decision came because we, as a species, have no other choice.

For our families, for our community, and for the neighbors we lost, join PASADENA 100 on the front steps of Pasadena City Hall on Thursday, January 30th at 6:00pm for a Vigil for Our Community and Our Planet and to reaffirm our commitment to the goal of 100% carbon free electricity by 2030.

The Vigil will begin with a musical selection by the Towne Singers, followed by an invocation from Rev. Dr. Larry A. Campbell of First AME Church. We will be joined by city leaders, including Pasadena City Councilmember Jason Lyon, 2025 Rose Queen Lindsay Charles, and local hero Edgar McGregor. The keynote will be delivered by Audrey Ma of Polytechnic School.

Join us at the Vigil for Our Community and Our Planet, and together, as a city, let us do our part to ensure that no other community has to suffer the same fate.

Together, we will stop them.

In solidarity,
Sam Berndt