Documentary Reflection

March 29, 2025 By: Agambir Bandesha

   A recent mainstream media report from The Nation illustrates how the wildfires could reshape the climate movement in California. As the city of Los Angeles debates how it can best address the impacts of increasingly devastating natural disasters, organizers hope to make the most of the moment. The Eaton Fires swept through entire neighborhoods and shifted community understanding of the climate crisis. Both the Eaton and Palisades fires rank among the five most destructive in the state’s history, having destroyed over 12,000 structures and displacing hundreds of families. Civil disobedience has played an important role in the history of environmentalism. Looking forward, climate activists can take a note from how Los Angeles quickly mobilized in the time of need to take care of one another, through community organizing that moved beyond raising awareness to on-the-ground action and robust mutual aid. Meaningful advocacy around climate change must require an acknowledgement of the devastation and loss communities around Los Angeles have experienced over recent months (Chen & Grether, 2025).

   Links can be made to the Slocal Valley community forest management project to learn from the past. Only local control over the forest could reverse destructive practices. The community was an important resource because residents would have to live with the consequences of good and bad policy. A Slocan Valley report recommended the establishment of a resource management committee made up of local residents. In public hearings to promote the findings, it was insisted that local residents would be less likely to exploit and destroy land than international companies, who were not invested in the community. The SVCFMP represents a moment when people with diverse political positions worked together to try to protect the valley for future generations. This process of political engagement also taught them to find allies in their neighbors (Coates, 2016).

References:

Chen, A., & Grether, M. (2025) How the Wildfires Could Reshape the Climate Movement in California. The Nation. https://www.thenation.com/article/environment/los-angeles-california-wildfires-climate-change-organizing/

Coates, C. M. (Ed.). (2016). Canadian countercultures and the environment. University of Calgary Press.