This Week on Earth: Jan 14-20
Thick ice meets Lake Michigan at Northwestern’s Lincoln St. Beach. (Jonathan Zhao/ION)
California
Wildfires raging across the Los Angeles area have killed at least 27 people and affected tens of thousands of residents since Jan. 7.
According to recent news reports, more than 12,000 structures across 60 square miles, an area the size of San Francisco, have been burned by the fires. Two of the largest fires in Palisades and Eaton are now among the most destructive in California’s history. More than 150,000 LA county residents evacuated and displaced from their homes by the fires — Black and unhoused community members were among those most affected by the fires.
Wildfire smoke and air pollution continue to threaten residents as LA county remains blanketed in ash and dust that carry asbestos, lead, arsenic and other pollutants released from charred buildings.
Exacerbated by climate change, the wildfires began as Southern California experienced its driest winter on record, with its parched vegetation easily set ablaze. The fires were rapidly spread throughout the region by dry, intense Santa Anas winds.
Some local LA residents have called on the fossil fuel industry to pay for wildfire damages following insurance companies dropping fire coverage, as scientists estimate at least a quarter of the dryness that ignited the wildfires was caused by climate change.
As the region experiences increased climate whiplash from more extreme wet and dry periods, the state government’s limitations on Indigenous controlled burns to clear out dead vegetation has also contributed to the increase in destructive wildfires.
According to the Honorable Ron W. Goode, Tribal Chairman of the North Fork Mono Tribe, the lands of California desperately need Indigenous cultural burnings to promote biodiversity and decrease the wildfire risk posed by the buildup of dead vegetation, which becomes kindling.
“Many of the bushes that we’re now burning haven’t actually been burned for about one hundred and twenty years,” Goode said while conducting a burn on the Jack Kirk estate in Mariposa, California. “And they’re crying. They want fire, they want to be restored.”
Both California’s state government and local conservation agencies have slowly realized their mistake in banning Indigenous controlled burning, ignorantly calling Native burning “primitive,” and ecologically destructive, as wildfires intensified and biodiversity decreased. For example, In 1968, after realizing that no new giant sequoias were growing in California’s unburned forests, the National Park Service reversed its prohibition on prescribed fire.
Over the last few decades, as California experienced record-breakingly devastating fires, the California government returned to Native communities, such as the Karuk and Yurok Nations, which have worked in partnership with the U.S. Forest Service to burn thousands of acres a year. In 2024, California enacted SB310, a bill that acknowledges tribal sovereignty and the right to cultural burnings, and begins to reconcile with the state’s oppression of dispossessed Native nations.
According to Margo Robbins, a member of the Yurok tribe who heads the Cultural Fire Management Council, government agencies have realized their mistake in trying to exclude fire from the forest.
“They’re looking for answers and seeking out Native people as to what should be done and how to go about it,” said Robbins.
To prevent entire neighborhoods from being set ablaze, the Yurok Nation has ignited small, contained fires on built up vegetation. This creates breaks in the forests and grasslands so that wildfires cannot cross them, reducing their destructive capacity.
As California seeks to improve fire resistance amidst climate change, empowering Indigenous nations and their right to controlled burnings is essential in protecting the landscape and local peoples.
Interested in learning more about controlled burning? Consider these resources:
What the Research Says: Prescribed Fire and Wildfire Risk Reduction
‘Fire is medicine’: How Indigenous practices could help curb wildfires
Catastrophic Fires, Colonialism, and the Revitalization of Indigenous Cultural Burning in California
United States
The total wealth of the top 15 fossil fuel billionaires in the U.S. increased by 15.2%, or $40.2 billion, over the last nine months, according to a report from the Climate Accountability Research Project.
The report also records that in the first two weeks of 2025, the total wealth accumulation of the top 15 fossil fuel billionaires, including Richard Kinder and Charles Koch, increased by $2.42 billion, or 6% of the total nine month increase. The individual wealth amassed by these billionaires over the last few months is, “a reflection of the booming prospects for the oil, gas and coal industry” under the Trump administration, the report said.
According to the report, the billionaires’ increase in wealth follows Trump’s 2024 Mar-a-Lago dinner, where he asked fossil fuel industry leaders to contribute $1 billion toward his campaign. If elected, he promised to expand offshore drilling, weaken environmental rules and reduce green energy regulations.
In total, the oil and gas industry donated more than $75 million to Trump’s campaign, not including another $80 million spent on independent ads in key states.
These ‘oil-garchs’ have already begun pushing their agenda as the second Trump administration prepares to be inaugurated. On Jan. 14, the top U.S. oil lobby group, the American Petroleum Institute, launched an energy “road map,” which advocated for the repeal of EPA regulations and the expansion of oil and gas drilling areas —including the 625 million acres where Biden banned offshore drilling last week.
Wyoming
A Wyoming irrigation district is interested in rehabilitating a two-acre defunct hydroelectric station on the Wind River Indian Reservation, drawing protests amongst local Indigenous community members.
The Wind River Indian Reservation is shared by members of the Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapaho Nations. Members of both communities have organized against the plans of the irrigation district, which include producing hydroelectric power on Indigenous lands without providing energy for the local Native communities.
The Fort Bridger Treaty of 1868, signed by leaders of the Bannock and Eastern Shoshone Nations, allocated the Wind River reservation “for the absolute and undisturbed use and occupation of the Shoshone Indians,” yet Midvale Irrigation District and the Wyoming government are now trying to bypass Native treaty rights in order to generate hydroelectric power for nearby settlers. In 2024, Wyoming’s Sen. John Barrasso and Rep. Harriet Hageman introduced an act to quietly transfer ownership of the land to the Midvale Irrigation District without any consultation of Indigenous community members.
“They’re enacting federal legislation to take a piece of land right in the middle of the reservation,” said Shoshone Business Council vice-chairman Michael Ute.
The case of the hydroelectric plant is part of a broader concerted effort amongst U.S. representatives and corporations to undermine Native sovereignty to construct green energy initiatives.
For example, renewable energy corporations have leased land from Indigenous communities, such as the Navajo Nation, to develop green infrastructure, while denying Native nations of renewable energy access. In Arizona, the San Carlos Apache have been fighting against the establishment of a copper mine on Oak Flat, which would yield materials for the production of electric vehicle batteries while destroying a sacred site and critical wildlife habitat for the Apaches.
As Native communities continue to fight for a healthy environment following centuries of the U.S. government treating them and their lands as disposable, cultivating just energy systems requires working with Indigenous Nations and understanding America’s legacy of toxicity toward Native peoples.