This article is originally available in French but presented here to all readers given the high level of interest.
We couldn't ask for a better scenario for a sequel to Don't Look Up. In this 2021 film, director Adam McKay described a society incapable of reacting to a significant emergency: the arrival of a meteorite that would destroy the Earth, in a metaphor for the climate crisis. Today, monstrous fires are devastating Los Angeles as 2024 is declared the hottest year on record, exceeding for the first time the threshold of 1.5°C of global warming, the most ambitious limit set by the Paris Agreement at the end of 2015.
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The news offers a new - literal - illustration of the fact that "our house is burning and we are looking elsewhere", as Jacques Chirac noted in 2002. The former French president mentioned the "natural disasters" hitting Europe to support his point. Twenty-three years later, we continue to use this term during every calamity, in Los Angeles as in Mayotte, in Valencia as in Florida.
There are no natural disasters. This term is an illusion that disempowers humanity, evoking the planet's anger in the face of which we would be powerless. Of course, natural hazards exist, but the choices of urbanization, land use planning, public policies, and the socio-economic context transform it into a disaster. Exposure and vulnerability arise from human decisions. Under the effect of demographic pressure, Los Angeles authorities have built massively in areas prone to fires, with houses built on the edge of the forest and often with a wooden frame. Water management has always been complex in this arid zone.