Wildfires and Those on the Margins

There has been a lot in the media recently about the "new normal", which is really the new, ominous, abnormal for California. Fire is ravaging the state once again, with hundreds of thousands displaced, mostly temporarily, and millions without power, sometimes for days on end. California has a population which exceeds all of Canada (just under 40 million) and is the most populous state in the union. Yet the lives of so many are disrupted by these wildfires.

The media allow us to see the extent of what are often towering flames, as well as the destruction of property. Firefighters managed to save the President Ronald Reagan Library but it is now surrounded by a charred landscape. What is the psychological damage which comes from the constant threat of destruction?



Reagan Library

I saw a piece written by a reporter who ventured into an evacuated neighbourhood and came upon a woman who is a cleaner for a well-to-do family. They had fled and neglected to let her know that they were gone and she was stranded outside the house. The reporter tried to call an Uber for her but no one would enter the area. So, she drove the woman to a safer neighbourhood and along the way they picked up another housekeeper in similar circumstance. They passed a gardener who declined a ride, but he too was alone, the homeowners having moved to safety. 

This was a powerful reminder to me that disaster, including calamity caused by climate change generally affects the poor with greater severity. No, they don't own expensive homes which can be destroyed by fire or flood, but they depend on what are often wages which don't sustain them at the best of times. The women picked up by the reporter lamented that if they didn't work they didn't get paid, and they were reluctant to take an Uber once they were in a safer area because of the cost. The climate crisis leads to climate-related inequity. And of course, many other creatures are displaced and killed by extensive fires which leave no place to go. 

As Christians we care about all circumstances of injustice and the plight of the marginalized, human and otherwise. It's a long way from Southern Ontario to sunny California, aka smokey California, yet we can pray for those who are traumatized and displaced by these fires.