Conflagration

There is something seductive about a temporary​ apocalypse, the kind you can enter knowing it is not​ yours. Knowing that you can return to your unburned,​ unflooded, uninterrupted world. For now.Eventually there will be no escape from the​ climate crisis or the conflagrations that rise from the​compounding, cascading issues of consumption and​ overpopulation that light up our laptops and phone​ screens in endless feeds of images like mine. And yes, I​ know it was more than our changing climate that burned​ LA. It was Santa Ana winds, the urban-wildland interface,​ arson and power lines, and all the other elements of​ this perfect storm. But I also know that our climate will​ continue to remind us of our consumption with events​ like these, closer together and more extreme. And that​ story is bigger than the details of each chapter or the​ individuals in the images. I had already decided I would start following that larger story when I saw the city on fire​ that first night and started packing my bags for the airport.​..