The fires in and around Los Angeles are coming under control. The city’s mayor has already issued an executive order to speed up rebuilding. But equally catastrophic blazes are likely to strike again on a hotter planet, raising the question of whether some parts of the region should still be considered livable.
It’s not an unthinkable notion. There have been a handful of attempts at systematically moving populations away from regions severely affected by climate change. This kind of “managed retreat” has typically been applied to risks from rising sea levels, with recent programs in the U.S. involving relocating tribal populations in Alaska and Washington.
But people affected by wildfires are only just starting to see efforts from governments to help them to move away from high-risk areas, including in Los Angeles County. A California program launched last year that offered up to $350,000 in loans to those affected by fires in 2018 and 2020 to shift to safer places fully allocated its funds within weeks.