Los Angeles is burning. Entire neighborhoods have been wiped off the map. Families are fleeing for their lives as flames leap across highways and thick smoke blankets the city. As a climate activist, I’m devastated. But I’m also angry. That’s because the Palisades, Eaton, Sunset, and Hurst fires didn’t just happen — they were created.
For decades, oil and gas CEOs knew their actions would create dangerous temperatures, intensify droughts, and create the perfect conditions for wildfires to spread. The leaders of these corporations were warned that their business models would force tens of millions of people to flee their homes and take countless lives. But instead of sounding the alarm, they lied to the public, saying climate change wasn’t real. And they poured money into political campaigns and movements, in turn getting the green light to drill away and receive $757 billion in subsidies from our government every year. Instead of putting that money toward rebuilding homes or creating good-paying union jobs to help stop the climate crisis, some of the wealthiest men in the world are getting even more unimaginably wealthy — and we pay the price in our tax dollars, our homes, and our planet.
Oil and gas CEOs know they’re responsible for these disasters. But still, they choose to fight investments in renewable energy, spread propaganda, and bribe politicians into supporting $757 BILLION in fossil fuel subsidies.
— Sunrise Movement 🌅 (@sunrisemvmt) January 8, 2025
We can’t count on our incoming leadership to change this. In fact, President-elect Donald Trump and his administration are part of the problem. In his first term, he rolled back generations-old environmental protections that have made millions of people safer and healthier. This time around, he’s promised oil and gas CEOs massive tax cuts and the rollback of climate progress in exchange for $1 billion in contributions, and he’s appointing a cabinet full of billionaires, oil executives, and climate deniers to be in charge of climate policy.
The stories I have already heard from the Los Angeles wildfires are tragic and life-altering. People who woke up to alerts in the middle of the night and had minutes to gather their loved ones and their belongings. People who spent countless hours not knowing if their homes had burned down and if their families had made it out. People who are living without power and with smoke in their lungs. And as the fires rage on, the ultimate toll of this disaster remains to be seen.
Enough is enough. I refuse to accept a reality where — for my entire life and for generations to come — we continue to watch disasters like this become more destructive and deadly. We need to stand up to the billionaires who are causing this devastation and demand action. It won’t be an easy task. They are entrenched and incredibly wealthy. The good news is there are more of us than them — and if all of us who are feeling angry and scared and sad right now decide that to fight for a better world, we can make it happen.
Our future doesn’t have to be written in smoke and ash. As the Executive Director of Sunrise, a youth climate movement fighting for a climate revolution, I’m part of a bold plan to remake our politics by organizing every corner of the country, stopping the worst of Trump’s extreme agenda, and forcing politicians to fight for our planet. But it will take all of us. So if you are reading this, I ask you to join me. The fight is urgent, and the time is now.