Los Angeles Wildfires: Mobility, Adaptation & Resilience
In the lead-up to MR2025, the Columbia Climate School’s biannual conference on topics related to mobility, adaptation, and well being in a changing climate, we offer this webinar to examine the complexities around managed retreat in a diverse urban context affected by a major climate disaster. In January 2025, wildfires tore through several communities in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. The three largest fires were the Palisades Fire, the Eaton Fire, and the Hurst Fire, affecting communities such as Pacific Palisades, Malibu, Altadena and Pasadena. Around 30 lives were lost, and over 200,000 residents were evacuated. More than 16,000 structures were destroyed or damaged. Total property and capital losses range between $76 billion and $131 billion, with insured losses estimated up to $45 billion. Climatologists suggest that such fires will become more likely in the future as the climate of southern California seesaws between wet periods with rapid vegetation buildup and prolonged droughts. Gale force Santa Ana winds were a major culprit in spreading the wildfires.
Recent fires in California raise a number of critical questions in the context of mobility and climate resilience. Should communities be rebuilding in an area that is likely to see growing fire risks? What is the role of adaptation versus managed retreat? Would managed retreat in fact exacerbate wildfire risks for remaining communities as formerly developed areas reforest? As large private insurers pull out, will over-reliance on state insurance policies transfer risk to the taxpayers? Is the ability to rebuild (or retreat) equally accessible to all, regardless of income level?
We bring together four panelists to discuss these issues:
- Jonathan Sury, MPH panelist and moderator, is a Senior Staff Associate at the National Center for Disaster Preparedness (NCDP). At NCDP, he contributes to a broad disaster research portfolio, including hazards mapping, rural preparedness, mental health and psychosocial support, community coalition building, and child-focused community resilience.
- Kristin Marcell, panelist, is director of the Climigration Network. She has more than 16 years of experience managing assistance programs that build the collaborative capacity for partners to innovate on technical, funding, outreach, leadership development, and decision-support challenges in the field of climate adaptation.
- Lily Bui, PhD, panelist, is Director of Climate & Disaster Preparedness and Resilience at SoCal Grantmakers and founding member of the L.A. Wildfire Recovery Funders Collaborative, an emergent cross-sector coalition of local recovery philanthropic fund managers, government agencies, academia, and nonprofit partners responding to the devastating January 2025 wildfires in Southern California.
- Lisa Dale, PhD, panelist, is the Director of the MA in Climate and Society program at the Columbia Climate School. Trained as a political scientist, her research on environmental policy focuses on climate change adaptation in two distinct settings: rural agricultural communities in Sub-Saharan Africa, and wildfire risk zones across the American West.
