Bendix talks to LA Times about CA wildfires, fireworks threat

July 8, 2021

Los Angeles Times

Jacob Bendix

Geography & the Environment Department

Climate Change

Natural Disasters

United States

Wildfires

Los Angeles Times

Jacob Bendix

Last month, more than 100 fire scientists signed a letter urging the Western U.S. to forgo fireworks this Fourth of July. The letter noted that this year’s holiday will be "like no other we’ve experienced in the nation’s history" because of the heat and drought. Jacob Bendix, professor of geography and the environment who specializes in the study of wildfire distribution, was one of the scientists who signed the letter. Given the increasingly flammable landscape, "pleas to skip the fireworks make perfect sense," says Bendix. "This is particularly true in Southern California, where the vast majority of wildfires are started by people rather than lightning," he says, "so that it is largely in our hands as to whether our behavior causes catastrophe." Read more in the Los Angeles Times article, "No such thing as ‘safe and sane’ fireworks in a bone-dry California primed to burn."