Smoke plumes rising tens of thousands of feet into the air over California could be seen from outer-space overnight and into Sunday as massive wildfires that touched off this weekend amid a statewide heatwave triggered dramatic rescue efforts for hundreds of people trapped in a U.S. national forest and fresh warnings of a “climate emergency” unfolding in real time.
The fast-moving “Creek Fire” in the Sierra National Forest — which has burned at least 36,000 acres and reported as 0% contained as of Sunday — triggered a military-assisted rescue effort of more than 200 people camped at a popular swimming reservoir in the park. The fire was so ferocious, according to the National Weather Service (NWS) Oakland Center Weather Service Unit on Saturday, that the tops of smoke plumes soared to 50,000 feet or more.
#CreekFire last 5 hours from 1pm – 7pm PT #timelapse
Multiple aircraft reporting tops above 50,000 feet!
Multiple lightning strikes detected #GOES17 #AxisMeadowLakes cam @nvfirecams @AlertWildfire via @NVSeismoLab #cawx #CAfire pic.twitter.com/9qpXp2iDX0— NWS CWSU Oakland (@NWSCWSUZOA) September 6, 2020
Meanwhile, with temperature records “shattered” in areas across the state on Saturday, a number of other wildfires erupted elsewhere. After Tom Dang, a science and operations offices out of the NWS’s Tuscon office, shared the following satellite imagery of the multiple fires, meteorologist and journalist Eric Holtaus said: “it cannot be overstated how terrifying this satellite image is.”
Ugh. The dreaded combination of very hot temperatures and seasonality (approaching the driest time of year) is leading to extreme fire conditions across northern and central CA. #cawx pic.twitter.com/5SSTVFhNew
— Tom Dang (@DangWx) September 6, 2020
For climate experts like Holthaus, extreme wildfires like the Creek Fire, matched with the record-setting heat in California, cannot be — and should not be — decoupled from the underlying planetary crisis caused by fossil fuel emissions and other human activity.
The biggest new fire burning in California right now is so powerful it sent smoke 10 miles straight up into the stratosphere and created its own thunderstorms.
224 people were airlifted by the National Guard.
We are in a climate emergency. https://t.co/jWlt6YhBks
— Eric Holthaus (@EricHolthaus) September 6, 2020
A Sunday morning alert from the NWS warned: “A dangerous heat wave is underway across much of the Western U.S. this holiday weekend and critical fire weather conditions are forecast through next Tuesday for portions of the West.” The NWS said that as “excessive heat” continues in California and across the western region of the U.S., there is potential for new daily temperature records being set — and those soaring temperatures, experts warn, arrive amid already dire fire conditions.
The heat in California is intense–records aren't just being broken, they're being crushed pic.twitter.com/zSCGG0FQrJ
— Bill McKibben (@billmckibben) September 5, 2020
The climate crisis has led to:
❌ The strongest hurricane to hit Louisiana in 164 yrs
❌ California wildfires raging across 1 million+ acres
❌ Hurricanes pummeling the Midwest
❌ A storm leaving NY w/o electricity for a weekAnd that was just this month. https://t.co/DTNWnzSFmA
— Friends of the Earth (Action) (@foe_us) September 5, 2020
According to the Los Angeles Times:
The forecast prompted Gov. Gavin Newsom to issue an emergency proclamation aimed at shoring up California’s energy capacity and staving off the kind of power outages and rolling blackouts that left tens of thousands of residents in the dark during the last big heat wave.
The California Independent System Operator, which runs the power grid for most of the state, has issued a statewide flex alert—calling for residents to voluntarily cut back their electricity consumption from 3 to 9 p.m. Saturday through Monday.
“This is what climate change looks like,” lamented Dana Brown, a research professor of history and professor emerita at the University of California, Santa Cruz. in the Guardian on Thursday in a column documenting the recent and widespread destruction caused by this year’s fire season in California.
Interviewed by CapRadio this week about the climate connection and what to do about the intensifying wildfire seasons in California and elsewhere, UC Berkeley forest ecologist and climate change scientist Patrick Gonzalez — who says that “outdated policies” combined with human-caused global heating accounts for a 900% increase in areas burned by wildfires since the mid-1980s — said ending the fossil fuel economy should be the chief priority for anyone wanting to address the root cause of the issue.
“Fundamentally, the main solution to a lot of the fire problems that we have [is] taking action on climate change,” Gonzalez said of the fires. “To be carbon-free is the ultimate end goal, and the sooner we reach that, the better it will be for nature and for people.”
Trump is busy getting ready for Day One of his presidency – but so is Truthout.
Trump has made it no secret that he is planning a demolition-style attack on both specific communities and democracy as a whole, beginning on his first day in office. With over 25 executive orders and directives queued up for January 20, he’s promised to “launch the largest deportation program in American history,” roll back anti-discrimination protections for transgender students, and implement a “drill, drill, drill” approach to ramp up oil and gas extraction.
Organizations like Truthout are also being threatened by legislation like HR 9495, the “nonprofit killer bill” that would allow the Treasury Secretary to declare any nonprofit a “terrorist-supporting organization” and strip its tax-exempt status without due process. Progressive media like Truthout that has courageously focused on reporting on Israel’s genocide in Gaza are in the bill’s crosshairs.
As journalists, we have a responsibility to look at hard realities and communicate them to you. We hope that you, like us, can use this information to prepare for what’s to come.
And if you feel uncertain about what to do in the face of a second Trump administration, we invite you to be an indispensable part of Truthout’s preparations.
In addition to covering the widespread onslaught of draconian policy, we’re shoring up our resources for what might come next for progressive media: bad-faith lawsuits from far-right ghouls, legislation that seeks to strip us of our ability to receive tax-deductible donations, and further throttling of our reach on social media platforms owned by Trump’s sycophants.
We’re preparing right now for Trump’s Day One: building a brave coalition of movement media; reaching out to the activists, academics, and thinkers we trust to shine a light on the inner workings of authoritarianism; and planning to use journalism as a tool to equip movements to protect the people, lands, and principles most vulnerable to Trump’s destruction.
We urgently need your help to prepare. As you know, our December fundraiser is our most important of the year and will determine the scale of work we’ll be able to do in 2025. We’ve set two goals: to raise $150,000 in one-time donations and to add 1,500 new monthly donors.
Today, we’re asking all of our readers to start a monthly donation or make a one-time donation – as a commitment to stand with us on day one of Trump’s presidency, and every day after that, as we produce journalism that combats authoritarianism, censorship, injustice, and misinformation. You’re an essential part of our future – please join the movement by making a tax-deductible donation today.
If you have the means to make a substantial gift, please dig deep during this critical time!
With gratitude and resolve,
Maya, Negin, Saima, and Ziggy