We have been thinking for some time about the effect on climate change on social movement. We know that there has been increasing desertification in various parts of the world, especially in parts of Africa, which have led to hunger, deprivation, migration and war. We have seen the flooding that has taken place in countries such as Bangladesh, where displacement on account of rising sea levels affects a significant percentage of the population. We have seen hurricane after hurricane hit Florida, and even more so hit various of the islands of the Caribbean. We have read about some of the inhabited islands of the Pacific and Indian Oceans, whose future as a place of human habitation is in doubt. We have tracked wild fires in the American west now in recent years, just as we have tracked drought and falling water levels. We have been accustomed to instability and most of us have ignored it.

Now it’s hitting even closer to home. Three thousand miles to the west of Washington DC, we see large parts of Los Angeles and Los Angeles County ravaged by wild fires. We have, over the past five days or so, seen thousands of homes destroyed. We have seen more damage to Los Angeles in less than a week than three years of war have brought to Kiev. And, we have seen much of the damage being felt not by the residents of trailer camps, whose homes seem to attract deadly tornadoes on a regular basis, but by middle class, upper middle class, upper class and upper upper class families.

This Saturday morning, January 11, 2025, we do not know when these fires will end. Or how much more of Los Angeles will be destroyed. And when these fires are stopped, or when they burn themselves out, we will wonder when the next one will occur. Will it be as bad? Will it be worse?

We Americans keep saying how lucky we are. We live in a free country. We are protected by two oceans. We have seen peace and most of us have seen at least a modicum of prosperity. This has been the true definition of American exceptionalism. We as Americans are not exceptional. We are just the benefits of the luck of the geographical draw. But climate change appears to be unstoppable. We will no longer be able to pretend that we are exceptional. We are now America the Vulnerable.

There are other ways we are vulnerable as well, of course. We have seen that we are politically vulnerable. We have seen our adversaries grow their weaponry, and this means not only their explosives, but their ability to move missiles and bombs and the like around the world with tremendous speed and accuracy. We have seen that we are vulnerable to disease, and that a fast spreading disease can quickly lead to a world wide pandemic, disrupting society in so many ways. And we have seen that we are more and more at risk as Artificial Intelligence is growing, and we know that one day AI may control us more than we control it.

But now I am thinking about Los Angeles. How do you rebuild such a large part of a city. It’s not as simple as a homeowner calling College Hunks Haul Junk to clear the site, and then asking your brother-in-law, a contractor, to build you a new house. It will be unbelievably complicated. It will take years and years before areas this large can be rebuilt and, during those years and years, families aren’t going to be waiting around in shelters or in friends’ houses; they will be trying to get on with their lives in other parts of Los Angeles or elsewhere.

We can look elsewhere for lessons. World War II obviously devastated most of Europe and Japan. Cities were totally bombed out, infrastructure destroyed. Yet when I went to Europe for the first time in 1962, only 17 years after the end of World War II, everything (almost everything) looked pretty good. I have never been to Japan – where Tokyo was firebombed, and Hiroshima and Nagasaki nuked – but the rebuilding proceeded much the same way. These were miracles, in a way, helped along by the U.S. becoming the financial sponsor of so much rebuilding. But the destruction of Europe and Japan were the results of war and, for the past 80 years, we have been able to keep extensive or long lasting wars at bay in those parts of the world.

Climate change is different.

It is much easier to keep the peace (hard as that may be) than to avoid drought, rising seas, hurricanes, tornadoes, and forest fires. If the world is going to be more and more threatened by natural phenomena, the idea of rebuilding in areas which have been destroyed becomes more uncertain. Does it make sense to rebuild in areas which have become increasingly hurricane prone, or on coasts which are more likely to be flooded on a regular basis, and so forth? Does it make sense rebuild in an area where you are going to be more and more prone to uncontrollable fires? Decisions must be made.

Of course, the complete loss of one’s home is traumatic, hard to really comprehend. It’s traumatic in Los Angeles, and in Gaza, and in places which are destroyed by, say, earthquakes. And when you have areas as large as the ones destroyed in Los Angeles, the loss of one’s home is only the start. Yes, everything you have collected over the years, from art work, to clothes, to jewelry, to family portraits and heirlooms, and more are all gone. But your future is also disfigured. Jobs are gone, for example. Each of these California communities had businesses that accounted for thousands of jobs that can no longer be fulfilled. And when jobs are gone, so are salaries. Infrastructure, for another, is destroyed – water, electricity, gas lines, schools, fire houses, everything is gone. How will it be replaced? And when?

Nineveh is no more. The great Mayan cities are no more. And so on. For now, Los Angeles exists. But for now long?

Okay, you say: “What a mess this is?”

I agree with you. Los Angeles is a mess. And, because I wrote this post quickly on a Saturday morning, I guess it’s a mess, as well.