by Pamela Casey Nagler

It’s been a season.

As a member of the Democratic Club of Claremont’s Political Strategy Committee, I was recently tasked with combing through hundreds of state and federal environmental bills in order to determine which ones our club should lobby for in the coming months.

It was a task that became enormously poignant, overlapping as it did with the Eaton Canyon and Pacific Palisades fires that raged some 30 to 60 miles to the west. While safe at home, scanning legislative bills, I awaited news from friends and colleagues as to whose house survived and whose didn’t — and as it turns out, many didn’t. Houses of many artists, activists, musicians, and teachers I knew burned to the ground. Eaton and Palisades suffered the second and third most structural damage in California’s history, and even though everyone I knew survived, many didn’t. The Eaton Fire ended up being the fifth most deadly in our state’s history; the Palisades Fire, the ninth.

While these fires raged, I experienced no small amount of survivor’s guilt. Here in Claremont, the days were glorious, dry, yes, but the sun was mostly shining and our skies mostly clear. Even so, it became abundantly evident that what was happening nearby could easily happen here. Maps released by Cal-Fire in March now include many more Claremont residences located in very high, high, and moderate fire hazard severity zones.

Adding to the horror, aggravation and dismay of what was happening during this time, our nation inaugurated a president so hostile to environmental protections that he is now gutting our existing environmental laws and shredding our alliances with countries committed to climate change solutions. It’s a cold hard truth that while we in the southland are suffering from record breaking eco-disasters, our president’s administration is sending out messages that there really is no eco-crisis to address.

And yet if we pay attention, the recent wildfires serve as a cautionary tale. Never before has California experienced large wildfire events in January. Fighting wildfires can no longer be considered seasonal work, but now a year-round endeavor. We now know fires can happen when savage winds fuel ignition, and heavy rains can carry the toxic debris all the way to the ocean.

It’s our new normal. Fires are burning hotter, traveling farther, with more frequency. They are more destructive and are happening across the seasons.

Which brings me to the environmental bills. While plenty are worthy of attention, I selected bills from the perspective of a person who dearly loves California, its beaches, river valleys, mountains, and deserts. While scanning, I came across other southland eco-disasters that, if not caused by climate change, have certainly been exacerbated by it. A short list:

• The Tijuana River at our San Diego/Tijuana border that is contaminating our beaches and waterways on both sides.

• As the Salton Sea evaporates, winds are blowing a toxic stew of more than a century’s worth of agricultural contaminants.

• At the Chiquita Canyon Landfill in north LA County, a toxic brew is erupting at the surface, spreading noxious fumes.

• The algal blooms in the majority of our state’s counties are causing a massive die-off of aquatic life.

Taken together, these eco-disasters make a case for the passage of Polluters Pay Climate Fund bills legislators have introduced in the State Assembly and Senate, and the U.S. House and Senate. These bills are all variations on the same theme: make the fossil fuel corporations pay for their carbon emissions. Right now, these bills are gaining traction, advancing through various state committees. Both the Democratic Club of Claremont and the Democrats of Pasadena Foothills endorsed them last month. I urge you to support them, too.

Update: On May 7, the Trump administration announced it is suing Michigan, Hawaii, Vermont and New York for adopting polluters pay bills. This is what we are up against.

Pamela Casey Nagler is a member of the Democratic Club of Claremont and the Democrats of Pasadena Foothills.