As a lifelong Californian, I have experienced my share of fires. Growing up I remember my dad commuting from LA through fires in Malibu, and how scary that was. When I was very little, there was a fire on the hill above our Ventura house, and for the rest of my life when the sun sets at the right angle in the fall, the glint of the sun on the windows of the houses makes me wonder whether a fire is there or not.

In 2017, the Thomas Fire roared through my town taking out 300 homes, and the devastating mudflows in Montecito followed. In 2018, the Woolsey Fire took out a huge swath not far from home , and again in 2019, fire hit close by on South Mountain near Clos des Amis and where my son was at a slumber party, and other fires hit Ventura County too. If you add in the other devastating fires of the past few years — Lake, Mendocino, Napa, Tubbs, Atlas and more — Californians have lost a lot.

But this is nothing compared to what is happening in Australia where over 46 million acres have burned. According to a recent article in the New York Times,

• The area of 2019-2020 bushfires in Australia is larger than the country of Switzerland.
• The area of the 2019-2020 fires in Australia is larger than the states of Vermont and New Hampshire combined.
• If the fires in Australia were in California, they’d cover 1/10 of the state.

In addition to vineyards being burned to the ground, smoke taint threatens the crop Continue reading →