California farmworkers — particularly undocumented workers — are especially vulnerable to the climate-fueled disasters that regularly pummel the state, prompting advocates to call for permanent disaster funds to provide a safety net for the workers who feed the nation.
Climate change is responsible for a major portion of the approximately fivefold increase in California acres burned between 1971 and 2021, new research published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences finds. The scientists used various statistical models to disaggregate the plethora of factors that affect wildfires and determined the acreage incinerated increased 172% more than it would have without climate change. Put another way, “Nearly all of the observed increase in [burned area in California] over the past half-century is attributable to anthropogenic climate change,” co-author Don Lucas, of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory told USA Today. (Farmworkers: Modern Farmer, Wildfires: USA Today, Bloomberg $, San Francisco Chronicle, E&E $, The Atlantic; Climate Signals background: Wildfires)