Burning Point - Why California Wildfires are a Sustainability Crisis

In this opening episode of the Meliora Student Takeover Season we’re tackling the California wildfires—with a focus on Los Angeles—and what they reveal about a growing sustainability crisis. With lives, ecosystems, and the future of our planet at stake, wildfires are leaving a trail of devastation across the globe— from loss of life and property to widespread environmental and economic disruption. In regions like Southern California, once-seasonal fires are becoming longer, hotter, and more destructive, threatening lives, wildlife, and vital infrastructure.

This crisis isn’t just a natural hazard—it’s a sustainability emergency. It directly challenges the aims of Sustainable Development Goal 11: to create inclusive, safe, resilient, and sustainable cities. LA’s wildfire reality shows how far we still have to go.  These repeated disasters raise urgent questions: how can we prevent future wildfires? And what do they mean for global progress on the Sustainable Development Goals, the Global Forest Goals and climate resilience?

Host: Jasper

Guests: Alice, Hannah, Meg, and Claudiu

Transcript

Burning Point: Why California Wildfires Are a Sustainability Crisis

[Intro music plays]

Jasper: Hello and welcome to the Meliora Podcast from the Sustainability and Resilience Institute at the University of Southampton. This episode is part of the Global Sustainability Challenges Module, Student Takeover Season. My name is Jasper, and I’m joined by my colleagues Alice, Hannah, Meg, and Claudiu, to discuss Burning Point: why California wildfires are a sustainability crisis.

                  [Transition music plays]

Introduction

Jasper: Welcome to Burning Point. I’m Jasper, joined by Alice, Hannah, Meg, and Claudiu. Today, we’re tackling the California wildfires—with a focus on Los Angeles—and what they reveal about a growing sustainability crisis. With lives, ecosystems, and the future of our planet at stake, let’s get into it.

Wildfires are leaving a trail of devastation across the globe— from loss of life and property to widespread environmental and economic disruption. In regions like Southern California, once-seasonal fires are becoming longer, hotter, and more destructive, threatening lives, wildlife, and vital infrastructure.

Hannah: This crisis isn’t just a natural hazard—it’s a sustainability emergency. It directly challenges the aims of Sustainable Development Goal 11: to create inclusive, safe, resilient, and sustainable cities. LA’s wildfire reality shows how far we still have to go.

Meg: These repeated disasters raise urgent questions: how can we prevent future wildfires? And what do they mean for global progress on the Sustainable Development Goals, the Global Forest Goals and climate resilience?

Jasper: In this episode, we unpack wildfire trends, impacts, and root causes—and explore what cities like Los Angeles must do to build a more resilient future. As David Attenborough stated: “The truth is: the natural world is changing. And we are totally dependent on that world. It provides our food, water and air. It is the most precious thing we have and we need to defend it.”

Why are wildfires in this region worsening?

Jasper: I think the main point to start off with then is looking at the root cause of the issue. Meg, why are LA wildfires worsening?

Meg: Climate change is a key driver behind the worsening wildfires in Los Angeles. The western United States, especially LA, is warming faster than the global average. This warming leads to earlier snowmelt, prolonged droughts, and drier soils, creating perfect conditions for wildfires to ignite and spread. This results in more flammable vegetation and longer fire seasons.

Hannah: You mentioned prolonged droughts. So, how have these drought conditions specifically influenced wildfire behaviour in the region?

Meg: Southern California has faced decades of drought, one of the worst between 2012 and 2016. LA often experiences wet winters that spur rapid vegetation growth, and the intense drying in summer months makes this vegetation incredibly combustible. For every 1 °C increase in temperature, the atmosphere can hold 7% more moisture, which accelerates evaporation and dries out vegetation even faster. 

Hannah: The IPCC identifies the western U.S. as a climate hotspot, and research clearly links these dry spells and extreme heatwaves to human-driven climate change. This directly ties into SDG Target 11.6, which aims to reduce urban environmental impact. 

Meg: Yes, and a striking example of is the 2017 La Tuna Fire, which followed a record-breaking heatwave and dry Santa Ana winds. This shows that climate change isn't a future threat—it's affecting us now and in a very dangerous way.

Alice: So, if climate change is causing more wildfires, are the fires also making climate change worse?

Meg: Yes exactly. Wildfires release huge amounts of carbon dioxide, which fuels global warming and increases future wildfire risk, a dangerous feedback loop. This undermines environmental resilience, threatening biodiversity and the ecological systems cities rely on.

Jasper: Are there any other reasons why wildfires are becoming more common in LA?

Meg: Whilst climate is a huge factor, it’s worsened by rapid urban expansion in the wildland-urban interface, areas where homes meet fire-prone natural vegetation. Development in these zones increased by over 40% between 1990 and 2010, with LA among the fastest-growing region, demonstrating how LA developers are prioritising scenic views over safety.

Alice: Interesting, this seems like it contradicts SDG target 11.3, which promotes sustainable and inclusive urbanisation. Instead, it seems that short-term economic gains often outweigh environmental risk and long-term resilience.

Meg: Yes, and Sustainable Development Goal 11.1 also calls for access to adequate, affordable, and safe housing. But in LA, rapid urban growth has led to property developments in wildfire-prone zones without proper safety measures. Recent updated fire hazard maps now flag high-risk zones like San Fernando Valley. In response, the city plans to limit development in these areas—but that alone isn’t enough.

Jasper: So, will this result in deeper challenges?

Meg: Affordable housing is a serious issue in LA, with lower-income residents already more likely to live in high-risk areas. As wealthier individuals move to safer locations, vulnerable communities are pushed deeper into danger zones. What’s needed is a housing strategy that ensures fire-resilient, affordable homes in lower-risk areas. 

Jasper: Sounds like a lot of this could be down to government decisions. 

Meg: Yeah, absolutely. Governance is critical. In California, overlapping authorities often lead to inconsistent land-use policies and weak accountability. Local governments have approved high-density development in fire-prone zones without requiring proper safeguards.

Jasper: And what about more recent examples? Have other major fires reflected this issue?

Meg: Yeah, for example, in January 2025, Los Angeles faced two major wildfires —the Palisades and Eaton fires—among the most severe in history. The Palisades Fire is suspected to have started from New Year’s fireworks, while the Eaton Fire was linked to a faulty power line. The Southern California government now faces over 40 lawsuits for not cutting power out during high-risk conditions. 

These events highlight the urgent need for fire-resilient planning and stronger governance—both essential for meeting Sustainable Development Goal Targets 11.8 and 11.9, which call for integrating disaster risk reduction into development planning. 

Impacts on sustainable cities:

Jasper: What about some of the impacts of wildfires on sustainable communities; more severe and more frequent wildfires means worse impacts, right?

Claudiu: Absolutely. Wildfires have wide-ranging environmental, social, and economic impacts. In 2018, the Woolsey Fire caused over $6 billion in damage, disrupting industries and forcing evacuations, while power shutoffs closed businesses in places like Topanga Canyon. Even smaller events, like the 2019 Getty Fire, had major effects, halting film production and hurting tourism.

Hannah: Can you talk more about the physical impacts?

Claudiu: Wildfires can severely damage towns and agricultural areas. So, for example, vegetated landscapes often undergo major change during and after burns. Post-fire floods can cause extreme runoff and debris flows, leading to loss of life and widespread damage to homes, roads, and infrastructure.

Jasper: What about some of the economic impacts, can we discuss them?

Claudiu: Actually, we must consider that fire-related economic disruptions cause major direct and indirect losses, so economic impacts often extend beyond fire-affected areas, creating an economic ripple effect influencing major urban centers. 

 Alice: Do you think you could expand a little more on the implications of this?

Claudiu: Yes. Wildfires can impact even sustainable cities untouched by the flames. In 2018, places like Sacramento County, despite not experiencing wildfires directly, were affected due to major supply chain disruptions.

Meg: So wildfires don’t just impact the communities they burn; they ripple out and affect broader urban economies too. Is that right?

Claudiu: Exactly. Therefore, wildfires pose a major threat to economic sustainability in both areas affected directly by the wildfires and areas beyond.

Actually, just to touch on this—wildfires are also disruptive to the housing market. In high-risk areas, some insurers are pulling out entirely, making it harder for people to get coverage or secure home loans. At the same time, displaced residents are moving into safer areas, driving up demand and rent. This worsens affordability and hits lower income communities the hardest.

Meg: These wide-reaching economic impacts show how wildfires undermine LA’s resilience and inclusivity, directly threatening progress toward Sustainable Development Goal 11.

Inclusivity in wildfire response

Jasper: So we’ve looked at a few different impacts of wildfires. Hannah, how does LA’s diversity and inclusivity factor into this? Are response efforts fair to all residents?

Hannah: Well, L.A. is an incredibly diverse city, but support for minorities and people with additional needs remains inadequate. Many sources highlight how evacuation and recovery efforts often overlook the elderly and disabled, with serious impacts on communities. For cities to be truly sustainable, they must meet the needs of all residents—socially, economically, environmentally, and in terms of their health.

Jasper: In L.A., wildfires are a constant concern, so to ensure sustainability, how are residents being protected? 

Hannah: Evacuation poses many challenges for everyone, but especially for those with physical or cognitive impairments. So, they may struggle with special equipment or miss warnings due to language barriers, cognitive difficulties, or sensory impairments.

Jasper: Do you know any examples of these difficulties?

Hannah: So, one particularly harrowing story from January involved a wheelchair-bound father and his son with cerebral palsy who died waiting for a rescue that never came, as they were unable to evacuate on their own. Others have been trapped in buildings when power shutoffs disabled elevators, and road closures also prevent assistance, especially when large or specialist equipment is needed.

Claudiu: So that leaves many people unable to evacuate. 

Hannah: Yes, and others unwilling to leave their helpless loved ones behind. 

Jasper: How would you summarize this and explain how it relates to the wider sustainability goal?

Hannah: It really just highlights the systemic failures to acknowledge and account for the needs of people who can't live independently. As much as a city provides green spaces, has sustainable policies, or makes promises for the future, true sustainability is just as much about the lives of current residents, and if we can’t protect those, or can only protect certain lives, we cannot call it sustainable. 

Jasper: What about the longer-term consequences?

Hannah: Well, it’s especially difficult for marginalized communities to rebuild and recover after a disaster. In the immediate aftermath, accommodation is frequently inadequate or even unavailable for disabled people, who then end up in hospitals and nursing homes long term. These groups are more vulnerable to respiratory viruses, which spread rapidly in group shelters. All in all, vulnerable people are often left without necessary support, resources, and services after a wildfire, impacting their livelihoods and in some cases costing their lives.

Jasper: Are they doing anything to address this issue?

Hannah: Sort of, so, a few organizations support disabled people and other minority groups in the event of a wildfire, but L.A still lacks a proper system to fully include them in disaster response plans. 

How can cities build resilience?

Jasper: The Institute of Risk Management in 2024 highlighted: 'Wildfires have become a sustainability crisis for LA, not just a natural hazard, revealing deep fractures in resilience, equity, and planning'. Alice, please can you expand on this?

Alice: Cities need innovative solutions to today’s challenges. As Meg noted, expansion into wildfire-prone areas is a major issue. The best way to boost resilience is by reducing the wildland-urban interface. California already has the most homes in the WUI, with plans to add over 645,000 more by 2050.

Jasper: Are there any other ways resilience can be built through planning?

Meg: One way is through managing green infrastructure and creating fire breaks, which are strategically placed barriers that help control the spread of fire by removing flammable material.

Alice: One interesting example highlights the link between fire management and community engagement. In Paradise, California, fire breaks are being redesigned as community spaces, including parks, gardens, and berry-picking meadows with fire-resistant native plants.

Jasper: That’s a great example—nature-based solutions help preserve both local vegetation and the visual appeal of communities. No one wants a bare dirt field as a fire break.

Alice: Exactly. Sustainable development should consider all stakeholders. 

Jasper: Yeah 100% —and there are various techniques to support this. One example is the use of green fire barriers, or as I prefer to call them, green corridors. These are strips of fire-resistant vegetation to slow wildfire spread. In a case study from China, dense planting of specific tree species within flammable forests successfully blocked surface-level fires—acting like firebreaks, but without sacrificing the tree line.

Claudiu: These methods sound good, but they only slow fires, surely we want a solution that stops them from happening in the first place?

Alice: In an ideal world yes, but sometimes that isn’t possible. Sustainable interventions consider all cases, and use an array of techniques. 

Jasper: Precisely, there’s no single solution, but yes, there are ways to reduce wildfire frequency. Xeriscaping is one such method, involving the planting of low-water-demand trees with broad canopies. These trees cool the area through shading and evapotranspiration, both day and night. This lowers residential water use and reduces the likelihood of wildfires forming.

Meg: But how does this relate to SDG 11; Sustainable Cities and Communities?

Alice: So I think this is a new way of thinking about fire breaks as community spaces, is a great example of SDG 11.7 which aims to provide access to safe, inclusive and accessible green and public spaces. 

Hannah: I just want to expand on this point actually, so, community engagement and individual action also play a key role in wildfire resilience. Projects like the LA County Community Disaster Resilience initiative help educate residents and boost local preparedness. 

Alice: Yeah, these seem to be simple, but effective ways that homeowners living in the WUI can build resilience to wildfires.  

Jasper: Do you think there is anything that governments can do to help build resilience in cities? 

Alice: Yeah, I think it's important that communities, and both local and national governments, work together. For example, innovations like California’s ‘Smoke Spotter’ app, which provides 24-hour fire forecasts, show how governments can support communities. Ultimately, building resilience is a shared responsibility.

Conclusion

Claudiu: As Pieter van der Brink said, “We cannot make cities sustainable if we continue to build them in ways that ignore ecological realities.” Without meaningful change, LA risks repeating the same devastating cycle.

Alice: As recent wildfires continue to capture international attention, they underscore the urgent need for coordinated, proactive strategies to reduce both the likelihood and the impact of disasters.

Hannah: If we redefine resilience to include justice, equity, and regeneration, the future of LA, and of cities around the world, can still be written in hope, not ash.

Meg: Achieving Sustainable Development Goal 11 isn’t just a goal—it’s essential. Through inclusive governance and climate-conscious urban planning, fire-prone cities can build a future rooted in sustainability, equity, and resilience.

Jasper: The threat of wildfires goes beyond LA and California. As we’ve explored, it’s a global issue demanding global solutions. It’s time to act before history repeats itself.

Thank you for listening to this Global Sustainability Challenges Student Takeover episode of the Meliora Podcast. Thank you to Alice, Hannah, Meg, Claudiu, and to Nick, for research and production. We hope you will join us again to listen to further fascinating discussions on a range of sustainability topics delivered by our undergraduate colleagues at the University of Southampton. Goodbye. 

                  [Outro music plays]

Reference list

admin. (2024) New Census Data Shows U.S. Fails Disabled People After Disasters – The Partnership for Inclusive Disaster Strategies. Available at:https://disasterstrategies.org/new-census-data-shows-u-s-fails-disabled-people-after-disasters/

Chow, W and Brazel, A. (2012) Assessing Xeriscaping as a sustainable heat island mitigation approach for a desert city’, Building and Environment, 47:170-18. Available at:  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.buildenv.2011.07.027

Cydzik, K. (2025) ‘Community Impacts of Wildfire’, in Steinberg, S.L and Sprigg, W.A. (eds) Climate, Vulnerability and Health. Extreme Weather and Society. 2nd ed. Cham, Switzerland:  Springer, pp. 9- 22. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-77046-3_2

DESA. (2021) Wildfires -a growing concern for sustainable development. Available at: https://www.un.org/development/desa/dpad/wp-content/uploads/sites/45/publication/PB_111.pdf.

Eisenman, D., Chandra, A., Fogleman, S., Magana, A., Hendricks, A., Wells, K., Williams, M., Tang, J and Plough, A. (2014) ‘The Los Angeles County Community Disaster Resilience Project — A Community-Level, Public Health Initiative to Build Community Disaster Resilience’, International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 11(8): 8475-8490. Available at: https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph110808475

Mann, M.L. (2014) ‘Modeling residential development in California from 2000 to 2050: Integrating wildfire risk, wildland and agricultural encroachment’, Land Use Policy, 41: 438–425. Available at:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landusepol.2014.06.020

McDermott, A. (2025) How towns can adapt to fire as bigger burns loom', PNAS, 122(5). Available at: https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2500926122

Moritz, M.A and Stephens, S.L. (2008) ‘Fire and sustainability: considerations for California’s altered future climate’, Climatic Change, 87(1): 265–271. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-007-9361-1

 Phuleria, H.C. (2005) ‘Air quality impacts of the October 2003 Southern California wildfires’, Journal of Geophysical Research, 110(D07S20): 1-11. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1029/2004jd004626.

‌Popkin, S.J. and Gonzalez, D. (2025) The Los Angeles Wildfires Pose Great Health and Housing Risks, Especially for People with Disabilities. Urban Wire. Available at: https://www.urban.org/urban-wire/los-angeles-wildfires-pose-great-health-and-housing-risks-especially-people-disabilities 

Punwani, A. (2025) Los Angeles Wildfires: A Stark Reminder of Environmental and Social Challenges. CFIRM.Available at: https://www.theirm.org/news/los-angeles-wildfires-a-stark-reminder-of-environmental-and-social-challenges-by-anita-punwani-cfirm/

Radeloff, V.C., Helmers, D.P., Kramer, H.A., Mockrin, M.H., Alexandre, P.M., Bar-Massada, A., Butsic, V., Hawbaker, T.J., Martinuzzi, S., Syphard, A.D. and Stewart, S.I. (2018) ‘Rapid growth of the US wildland-urban interface raises wildfire risk’, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 115(13): 3314–3319. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1718850115.

Syphard, A.D., Brennan, T.J. and Keeley, J.E. (2017) ‘The importance of building construction materials relative to other factors affecting structure survival during wildfire’, International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction, 21: 140–147. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijdrr.2016.11.011.

Wang, D., Guan, D., Zhu, S., Kinnon, M. M., Geng, G., Zhang, Q., Zheng, H., Lei, T., Shao, S., Gong, P and Davis, S. J. (2021) ‘Economic footprint of California wildfires in 2018’, Nature Sustainability, 4: 1–9. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-020-00646-7.

Wang, H-H., Finney M. A., Song, Z- L., Wang Z-S., Li, X-C. (2021) ‘Ecological techniques for wildfire mitigation: Two distinct fuelbreak approaches and their fusion’, Forest Ecology and Management, 495: 119-376. Available at:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foreco.2021.119376

Williams, A.P., Abatzoglou, J.T., Gershunov, A., Guzman‐Morales, J., Bishop, D.A., Balch, J.K. and Lettenmaier, D.P. (2019) ‘Observed Impacts of Anthropogenic Climate Change on Wildfire in California’, Earth’s Future, 7(8): 892–910. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1029/2019ef001210