In the Aftermath of Los Angeles Fires: Will the U.S. and Global Powers Start to Take Climate Change Seriously?

 In the Aftermath of Los Angeles Fires: Will the U.S. and Global Powers Start to Take Climate Change Seriously?

By M. Zayed

In the wake of the catastrophic fires that ravaged Southern California in January 2025, the streets of Los Angeles stand as a grim reminder of the volatility of our planet’s climate. What began as isolated wildfires spiraled into a months-long inferno that consumed over 250,000 acres of land, left hundreds of families displaced, and tragically claimed at least 50 lives as of the latest estimates. For a city often basking in the glamour of sunshine and palm trees, Los Angeles now wears the mark of climate change’s growing fury—a signal of what’s to come unless radical, urgent action is taken.

The fires, fueled by a deadly mix of prolonged droughts and unrelenting heatwaves, have drawn comparisons to California’s past fire seasons, but the stark intensity of this particular disaster stands as a chilling forecast for the future. According to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CAL FIRE), the damage caused by this most recent fire could top $5 billion, including damages to homes, infrastructure, and the economy—an unprecedented figure for a state already accustomed to devastating wildfires. If nothing else, this terrifyingly large and fast-spreading inferno reveals how profoundly our environment has changed—and how unprepared our global systems are to address the climate disaster.

A Climate Catastrophe Like No Other: A Global Crisis Unfolds

While the devastating images from Los Angeles' burning skyline will surely become etched in the minds of future generations, it is critical to ask: what happens next? Will we continue to witness cities and regions like Los Angeles suffer from climate-driven disasters, or will the international community respond with the requisite urgency and resolve?

Sadly, the recent California fires reflect a larger, far more alarming trend in global climate disaster: extreme weather events driven by human-induced climate change are no longer a distant, abstract threat but are part of a dangerous new reality.

Globally, this crisis is unfolding in dramatic ways. In Pakistan, the 2022 monsoon floods displaced over 33 million people and resulted in damages to an estimated 45,000 square kilometers of land—an area roughly the size of the entire country of Finland. The devastating floods were exacerbated by unprecedented heatwaves, intense rainfall, and rapidly melting glaciers in the northern mountain ranges. As Pakistan continues to recover from these extreme weather patterns, it joins nations like Bangladesh, the Philippines, and Sub-Saharan Africa—regions which are bearing the brunt of global climate change due to their low-lying geography, poor infrastructure, and limited resources. In these areas, widespread displacement, agricultural collapse, and extreme weather-related mortality are becoming an enduring concern.

Back in Europe, heatwaves in 2022 led to heat records in Britain, France, and Spain, with southern regions experiencing temperatures upward of 45°C (113°F) in certain areas. The impact on agriculture was devastating, threatening Europe’s food security in the process. Even the European Union, long a leader in climate policy, found itself facing a situation where warming and its deadly consequences threatened to undo decades of development.

These events, whether seen through the lens of heatwaves, floods, or catastrophic wildfires, all have one thing in common: they are symptoms of a rapidly changing climate that we are ill-equipped to cope with. Yet, as nations struggle to contend with these disasters, it is the global powers—those with significant financial, technological, and political resources—that bear the greatest responsibility for averting these existential threats.

The Failure of Global Powers: Are We Doomed by Inaction?

The U.S., for all its technological ingenuity and economic might, has failed to live up to the moral and environmental leadership expected of it. The legacy of former President Donald Trump’s withdrawal from the 2017 Paris Agreement was not just a political mistake; it set back global progress in combating climate change for years. Trump's administration, steadfastly committed to fossil fuel interests, slashed environmental regulations and rolled back important safeguards aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions. As a result, the U.S. failed to meet its emission reduction targets and prevented other countries from feeling pressured to meet their climate commitments.

The current administration, under President Joe Biden, made early strides by rejoining the Paris Agreement in 2021 and promising to reintroduce environmental protections. Biden's bold infrastructure bill included provisions for clean energy, which would eventually, in theory, move the U.S. toward cleaner power generation and drastically reduce its dependency on fossil fuels. But it must be stated that the implementation of these initiatives remains grossly inadequate when contrasted against the overwhelming scale of the problem. Experts point to the continued fossil fuel investment and domestic fracking as being at odds with the administration's climate promises. The climate budget allocation remains insufficient, even as the Biden administration focuses more on economic recovery.

If the world’s wealthiest and most developed country, with all its resources and research capabilities, is still lagging behind, what hope is there for nations in the Global South?

Beyond the United States, the global response remains lackluster, with growing evidence of insufficient investments in climate change mitigation or adaptation. The troubling case of Brazil, under Jair Bolsonaro, epitomizes the damaging economic and environmental choices made by some of the largest players in the global arena. While Brazil’s Amazon rainforest—the "lungs of the Earth"—remains central to absorbing carbon emissions, Brazil’s Bolsonaro-era policies allowed for the rampant deforestation of the forest in the name of agricultural and industrial interests. This unchecked destruction has had cascading impacts on global ecosystems, climate stability, and global weather patterns.

Despite commitments made by China to peak its emissions by 2030 and achieve net-zero by 2060, its reliance on coal-fired plants to meet the rising demand for energy reflects an apparent dissonance between policy promises and on-the-ground actions. China is the world’s largest emitter of carbon dioxide, responsible for over a quarter of global emissions. Yet, its continued growth in coal infrastructure undermines its other efforts on green technologies, such as electric vehicles and wind energy.

The Need for a Global Response: Time to Do More Than Talk

Scientists and experts are increasingly sounding the alarm on this failure to act. Dr. Jean-Pascal van Ypersele, a leading climatologist from the University of Louvain and former vice-chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), has emphasized the urgency of limiting global warming to below 1.5°C. According to Dr. van Ypersele, the window to avoid catastrophic climate impacts is closing rapidly, and the continuing rise in global temperatures is contributing to an accelerating cascade of extreme weather events—floods, droughts, wildfires, and hurricanes.

These warnings have found echo across the world from figures like United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres, who has consistently called for urgent action. Speaking at the 2022 COP27 summit in Egypt, Guterres stated, “We cannot continue this destructive path, we cannot be happy while the planet burns.” He has repeatedly underscored that governments, especially those in the global north, must massively up the ante on climate action—both by drastically reducing emissions and by increasing financial support to developing nations to help them adapt to climate change. Guterres has argued that wealthier nations, having contributed the most to carbon emissions historically, have a moral and financial obligation to assist vulnerable countries facing the brunt of the impact.

Senator Bernie Sanders in the United States, a proponent of the Green New Deal, similarly states that "if we are serious about tackling the climate crisis, the wealthiest nations must prioritize funding the transition to renewable energy and sustainable infrastructure." He is right: the Green New Deal, or something like it, is necessary—not just for the future of the U.S. but for the entire planet.

Conclusion: A Call to Global Leadership

The fires that recently destroyed parts of Los Angeles stand as a shocking indictment of the choices humanity has made up to this point in regard to environmental neglect. But they are also a reminder—a reminder of what the world will look like if nothing changes. Can humanity continue to lose lives, destroy infrastructure, and wipe out ecosystems due to unchecked climate inaction?

To truly address the climate crisis, the global powers—particularly the U.S., China, Europe, and Brazil—must do far more than simply acknowledge the problem. They must act with the urgency of those who realize the lives and futures of millions—if not billions—are at stake.

This includes transitioning from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources, enforcing emission reduction targets, investing heavily in adaptation measures for climate-vulnerable countries, and ensuring a more equitable distribution of climate-related funds. It is time to live up to the promises of international agreements, such as the Paris Climate Agreement, and to hold governments accountable for their commitments. Global leaders must stop dithering; they must tackle climate change as the existential crisis it truly is.

The question is no longer "if" we should act but "how" we can act fast enough to prevent more devastation. The answer lies in leadership, political will, and international solidarity—things the world’s powers must show if they are to stave off the irreversible damage to our planet’s future. The next generation is watching, and the verdict will be clear: history will judge our actions—too little, too late—unless we rise to meet the challenge.

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Sources:

1. California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CAL FIRE)
2. United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)
3. Center for American Progress – Climate and Energy Policy Reports
4. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Special Reports
5. Bernie Sanders, Climate Change Speech, Senate Hearing, 2023
6. António Guterres, Speech at COP27, 2022