A global warning from Los Angeles

Now it is burning.

It must be heartbreaking for people from all walks of life to lose their properties. As socialite Paris Hilton said: “It’s not just walls and roofs – it’s the memories that made those houses homes. It’s the photos, the keepsakes, the irreplaceable pieces of our lives.”

There are already political recriminations, with the Democratic governor and mayor being criticised for LA’s lack of preparedness and for cuts to firefighting departments.

Perhaps there is merit in these criticisms, but most great disasters are usually caused by a combination of factors.

Like the eight month drought and the hurricane-strength Santa Ana winds.

These factors are not caused by climate change, but they are likely to have been exacerbated by it. The LA fire season is usually from May to October and in most previous Januarys the climatic conditions did not exist for such fires to take hold.

Just like the Gulf of Mexico – sorry, of America – where the hurricane season has extended and become more severe.

The fires in LA come just days before the inauguration of President Donald Trump, who has called climate change a hoax and who in his last term of office withdrew the US from the Paris Accord, which attempts to get the whole world to act together to reduce emissions. This week, Mr Trump has been ridiculing “windmills” which, he claims, “litter” America and has pledged not to allow any more.

This is the wrong mindset. A policy of “drill baby drill” at the expense of development of renewables is a surefire way of ensuring the conditions exist for more extreme events to come together to create more devastating episodes like the LA fires or Hurricane Helene.