To the Editor: I used to be distressed to learn that my fire-scarred neighborhood of Altadena dangers excessive floods from this yr’s robust El Niño (“Clearing out the mountain basins in case El Niño brings flooding rain,” Sept. 17). Whereas I’m glad town is making ready, it exhibits how a lot mitigation we’ll want — and the way a lot it’ll value — as our local weather worsens.
L.A. County faces $4.5 billion in prices by way of 2040 from climate-intensified precipitation alone — the overwhelming majority borne by taxpayers, stressing native budgets. We’d like billions extra to take care of excessive warmth, well being prices and different local weather harms.
It’s obscene that Large Oil soaks in multibillion-dollar profits and subsidies yr after yr as our neighborhood, nonetheless weary from the last disaster, bears the billion-dollar prices to buffer the following. The Legislature must make polluters pay for the havoc they’ve triggered, so we are able to afford to spend money on essential neighborhood protections.
Maya Golden-Krasner, Altadena
This author is deputy director of the Middle for Organic Variety’s Local weather Regulation Institute.
