We have seen the devastation in the landscape and in the faces of our fellow citizens trying to survive the California fires. Anastasia Selby, a woman firefighter, offers her perspective:

“We woke around 5 a.m. and refilled our water, ate, and sharpened our tools in the dark. …

"Throughout the day we'd lag and then become reenergized; we'd pour Emergen-C into our mouths, eat crystallized coffee, make tea with the water in our water bottles which was almost always hot … I often lost myself in the sound of chainsaws and rhythm of my tool hitting the dirt and ignored my physical pain.”

Survival was often questioned. They didn’t question that these fires were in part a result of damage to our climate.

According to the National Academy of Science, human-caused climate change will lead to widespread and more frequent fires. With the climate warming in Utah at twice the global rate, our dry forests and backyards are ripe for burning. Let’s continue having conversations with our representatives. Ask them to protect the forests and backyards of our common home by placing a fee on the carbon that warms our oceans and precious land; the firefighters and our descendants are depending on us.

Karen Jackson

Salt Lake City