Lover of the beach, just not so much when there is dangerous levels of air quality.

Majority of the West Coast has been effected by astronomical amounts of wildfires. Not only destroying an extreme amount of land, but also taking the lives of at least 40 people.*

Four years ago I made the move to Los Angeles. At the time, California was in the mist of its’ longest drought.

The Department of Water Resources has measured the Sierra snow depth on April 1 since 1941, with an average of 66.5 inches. The 2015 measurement was record-breaking: the first with zero snow.**

It was also experiencing the second warmest October on record.

Not only was 2016 the warmest year on record, but eight of the 12 months that make up the year — from January through September, with the exception of June — were the warmest on record for those respective months. The past six years are also the warmest years on record.***

It was dry and hot to say the least. The only job I had lined up upon moving was working Desert Trip.**** The weather in Indio had even higher temperatures than LA, but the lineup was so unreal it kept you cool. On a day off a few co-workers and I drove down to the Salton Sea. It is the largest lake in California that also happens to be man-made. It looked like a ghost town with the inability to use the lake due to its toxicity. The county that incorporates majority of the lake, Imperial County, has the highest COVID-19 deaths in the entire state. You could argue a factor is the poor air quality to those numbers as residents are more likely to have respiratory issues already.*****

The drive back to the city was really beautiful. A different type of beautiful than Northern California. Before moving to So Cal I had only been to San Francisco/Marin County and that’s where I fell in love with California. I had always wanted to live in Los Angeles since I was a kid, so that’s where I ended up moving. But, Marin County was breathtaking while hiking through Muir Woods back in 2015. It’s tragic to think about all those beautiful places, that are detrimental to our environment, getting completely devastated by climate change.

In November of 2016, the U.S. Forest Service stated that 62 million trees died during the past year in California, with the severe drought being a major contributing factor. This was a 100% increase in tree mortality compared to 2015. **

Within the past four years I have truly fallen in love with Los Angeles. The impacts of climate change has especially been seen firsthand to those living on the West Coast. It is up to all of us to make strides to combat the overwhelming climate crisis and to keep the places that are beautiful in tact for the future.