Dr. Crystal A. Kolden
Director, UC Merced Fire Resilience Center. Pyrogeographer. I study wildfire in the era of anthropogenic climate change. Former wildland firefighter. Opinions are my own. *she/her* 🔥🔥🔥
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- TOMORROW! There's still time to register: 1pm - Introductions and talk by John Mills of @watchduty.org 2pm - A look ahead at the 2025 Fire Season in CA with @climate-guy.bsky.social 2:15pm - Mitigating smoke with Dr. Sandie Ha 2:30pm - Q&A with all speakers MEDIA is welcome. Please join us!
- On 4/17 @ucmerced.bsky.social Fire Resilience Center will host John Mills, CEO and co-founder of @watchduty.org AND have discussion with @climate-guy.bsky.social and Dr. Sandie Ha on: 1) The upcoming fire season in CA 2) How you can prepare, esp. for smoke We're streaming it online - join us!
- Climate change continued to have unpredictable impacts on wildfire in 2024. Unexpected shifts, like the Americas producing 40% of C emissions (normally it's <25%), and anomalous events, like the fatal Feb '24 Chile fire or the Pantanal wetlands burning, occur more often.
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- On 4/17 @ucmerced.bsky.social Fire Resilience Center will host John Mills, CEO and co-founder of @watchduty.org AND have discussion with @climate-guy.bsky.social and Dr. Sandie Ha on: 1) The upcoming fire season in CA 2) How you can prepare, esp. for smoke We're streaming it online - join us!
- This is your regular reminder that ALL buildings in California must build to seismic codes, but only those in CALFIRE's designated high hazard areas must build to WUI fire codes. Why the discrepancy? Who the hell knows...but it means the cycle of rebuild and burn again will continue.
- California just released new maps on where homes have to be built with wildfire-resistant materials. But the majority of homes destroyed in the Eaton fire won’t have to use those building codes www.npr.org/2025/03/25/n...
- Ed Abbey words to live by: “A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government.” “Anarchism is founded on the observation that since few men are wise enough to rule themselves, even fewer are wise enough to rule others.” “Anarchism is democracy taken seriously.”
- Worried about wildfires this year? You should be. Preparedness is the absolutely most effective way to mitigate disasters, and the firing of thousands of employees and hiring freeze means that there is almost no one to prepare. WHEN wildfires start (not if), suppression will be a mess.
- "Training is preparation for the known; education is preparation for the unknown." Just remember that we train AI, but we educate humans.
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- 🔥 Fire peeps... @wildland-zko.bsky.social joined us. Give him a follow.
- I am shocked* that the Trillion Trees guy ends up being a problem dude. They won't comment, but anyone with that kind of funding record doesn't get let go without doing something VERY, VERY BAD. *Note: I am not shocked at all
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- In Sept 2020, in the wake of a record CA fire season, I wrote an opinion piece for @nature.com about the need to focus on the human metrics of fire, not the acres burned. The #LAFires underscore that our obsession with size fails to convey the scope of the impacts. 🧵 www.nature.com/articles/d41....
- An important facet of the fire building code discussion is that it only applies to areas that CALFIRE deems high fire hazard; it's not blanket. Many urban homes burned in recent years were't included. For seismic codes, every house in the state must comply no matter how far from a fault line.
- The @calfire.bsky.social DINS program is the best post-fire data collection program in the world. I wish every state would adopt this, we would learn so much more. Structure losses (so far) for #PalisadesFire: recovery.lacounty.gov/palisades-fi... For #EatonFire: recovery.lacounty.gov/eaton-fire/
- To journalists who contact me last week and I wasn't able to respond...my sincere apologies. I lost my voice the week of the worst wildfire disaster ever in LA (didn't have that on my 2025 bingo card!). Many thanks to those of you asking the questions that help us become more resilient.
- Appreciate the opportunity to chat w/ @nytimes.com about how we can build smarter (and to code!!) after these wildfires. Suspending wildfire building codes only kicks the can down the road and invites another disaster. Hardened homes and defensible space for the win. www.nytimes.com/interactive/...
- Appreciate @marketplace.org having me on to talk about how we can live with wildfires. www.marketplace.org/shows/make-m...
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- For the thousands of people asking "How do we fix this #wildfire problem?", @michaelwara.bsky.social wrote an excellent white paper 3 years ago that neatly lays out the basics of the multipronged approach. It still holds. @stanfordwoods.bsky.social hosted a discussion panel as well.
- Globally, we published a summary paper in 2022 that looks at fire and climate change globally, led by Matt Jones at UEA. agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....
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- Many questions about whether people can/should live in Malibu. For answers, look at Pepperdine Univ. They safely sheltered-in-place just last month (Franklin Fire) and in 2018 (Woolsey Fire) thanks to excellent planning and fuel management. A model for getting it right. la.curbed.com/2018/11/20/1...
- I often use Watch Duty as an example of truly needed tech solutions for wildfire. Drones and AI are never going to prevent wildfires or put them out. But communications before, during, and after fire is a massive gap that tech can absolutely help solve.
- Pretty amazing that nonprofit Watch Duty -- which says it has 150 volunteers working around the clock to track wildfires -- has become the most trusted source of information on LA fires. Operated by retired/volunteer firefighters, dispatchers, and reporters. Real people. www.watchduty.org
- Reposted by Dr. Crystal A. KoldenCannot stop thinking about how Octavia Butler wrote a book in 1993 about climate change. It opens with deadly fires in LA in 2025. In the story, a fascist President has just won office with the campaign slogan "Make America Great Again." She was a modern day Nostradamus. If only we'd listened.
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