AFP USA

US greenhouse gas emissions barely decreased in 2024, leaving the world’s largest economy off track to achieve its climate goals, according to an analysis released Thursday, as the incoming Trump administration looks set to double down on fossil fuels.The preliminary estimate by the Rhodium Group, an independent research organization, found a net fall of just 0.2 percent in economy-wide emissions.Lower manufacturing output drove the modest decline, but it was undercut by increased air and road travel and higher electricity demand.Study co-author Ben King told AFP the small drop came despite the US economy expanding last year by 2.7 percent, “a continuation of a trend that we’ve seen where there’s a decoupling between economic growth and greenhouse gas emissions.”Overall, emissions remain below pre-pandemic levels and about 20 percent below 2005 levels, the benchmark year for US commitments under the Paris Agreement. The accord aims to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, to avert the worst catastrophes of planet-wide heating.But with 2024 effectively static, decarbonization must accelerate across all sectors. “To meet its Paris Agreement target of a 50-52 percent reduction in emissions by 2030, the US must sustain an ambitious 7.6 percent annual drop in emissions from 2025 to 2030,” the report said — an unprecedented pace outside of a recession.What’s more, Trump has signaled plans to roll back President Joe Biden’s green policies, including rules that require sweeping cuts from fossil fuel power plants and provisions of the Inflation Reduction Act, which channels hundreds of billions of dollars into clean energy. Should these plans materialize, the US would likely achieve only a 24–40 percent emissions reduction by 2035, the report concluded.- Off track -Even under Biden, the US has logged more tepid reductions compared to some other major emitters.German greenhouse gas emissions fell by three percent in 2024, following a 10 percent year-on-year drop the previous year, according to Agora Energiewende. The European Union’s emissions are forecast to have dropped by 3.8 percent in 2024, according to Carbon Brief, a UK-based analysis site.Such predictions precede official government data and only represent estimates, meaning final figures can vary significantly. US emissions have been trending downward in bumpy fashion since they peaked in 2004. They fell 3.3 percent in 2023 but rose 1.3 percent in 2022 and 6.3 percent in 2021 amid a post-pandemic rebound.”When we looked at the Inflation Reduction Act a couple of years ago… we would have expected slightly lower emissions today than we’re seeing right now,” said King. Still, these investments may just need more time to pay off: with the report finding clean energy and transportation spending reached a record $71 billion in last year’s third quarter.”It’s kind of a mixed bag from my perspective,” King said.- Air conditioning demand -Positives in the report include a bigger share of green energy in the grid — solar and wind combined surpassed coal for the first time — and a drop in methane emissions from reduced coal use and cleaner oil and gas production.Climate scientist Michael Mann of the University of Pennsylvania told AFP he welcomed the continued decoupling of growth and emissions.But “emissions aren’t coming down anywhere near the rate they need to, yet at least,” he added.”Simply flatlining emissions puts the United States even farther off track from meeting its climate commitments,” warned Debbie Weyl, US Acting Director for the World Resources Institute.Rachel Cleetus, policy director with the climate and energy program at the Union of Concerned Scientists, called the findings “sobering,” noting the increased electricity demand came from residential buildings requiring more air conditioning.”Now that’s a reality, as we see year upon year of the temperature records being broken,” she told AFP, as 2024 is set to be named the hottest year on record.

French far-right politician Eric Zemmour will attend Donald Trump’s inauguration ceremony, his party said on Thursday, with the pundit the only high-profile French politician to have been invited so far.The far-right prime ministers of Italy and Hungary, Giorgia Meloni and Viktor Orban, are also on the list of invitees, although French President Emmanuel Macron is not.Zemmour, head of the far-right Reconquest party, and his partner Sarah Knafo were invited to attend Trump’s inauguration ceremony in Washington on January 20, the party told AFP.Knafo, a 31-year-old member of the European Parliament, attended one of the US president-elect’s campaign rallies in Pennsylvania last year. She has praised Trump as a champion of “freedom of expression, alongside Elon Musk”. There has been no indication from the Elysee that Macron was planning to attend Trump’s inauguration, although it is not customary for foreign leaders to attend US inauguration ceremonies.Leaders of France’s main far-right party, the National Rally, have so far received no invitation to the ceremony, a member of Marine Le Pen’s team told AFP on Wednesday.On Wednesday, European leaders warned Trump against threatening “sovereign borders” after the US president-elect refused to rule out military action to seize Greenland, which is an autonomous territory of European Union member Denmark that itself has eyes on independence.Musk, who has secured unprecedented influence due to his proximity to Trump, is set for a role in the incoming president’s administration.He has provoked fury across Europe with a string of attacks on the continent’s leaders, including German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer.

US greenhouse gas emissions barely decreased in 2024, leaving the world’s largest economy off track to achieve its climate goals, according to an analysis released Thursday, as the incoming Trump administration looks set to double down on fossil fuels.The preliminary estimate by the Rhodium Group, an independent research organization, found a net fall of just 0.2 percent in economy-wide emissions.Lower manufacturing output drove the modest decline, but it was undercut by increased air and road travel and higher electricity demand.Study co-author Ben King told AFP the small drop came despite the US economy expanding last year by 2.7 percent, “a continuation of a trend that we’ve seen where there’s a decoupling between economic growth and greenhouse gas emissions.”Overall, emissions remain below pre-pandemic levels and about 20 percent below 2005 levels, the benchmark year for US commitments under the Paris Agreement. The accord aims to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, to avert the worst catastrophes of planet-wide heating.But with 2024 effectively static, decarbonization must accelerate across all sectors. “To meet its Paris Agreement target of a 50-52 percent reduction in emissions by 2030, the US must sustain an ambitious 7.6 percent annual drop in emissions from 2025 to 2030,” the report said — an unprecedented pace outside of a recession.What’s more, Trump has signaled plans to roll back President Joe Biden’s green policies, including rules that require sweeping cuts from fossil fuel power plants and provisions of the Inflation Reduction Act, which channels hundreds of billions of dollars into clean energy. Should these plans materialize, the US would likely achieve only a 24–40 percent emissions reduction by 2035, the report concluded.- Off track -Even under Biden, the US has logged more tepid reductions compared to some other major emitters.German greenhouse gas emissions fell by three percent in 2024, following a 10 percent year-on-year drop the previous year, according to Agora Energiewende. The European Union’s emissions are forecast to have dropped by 3.8 percent in 2024, according to Carbon Brief, a UK-based analysis site.Such predictions precede official government data and only represent estimates, meaning final figures can vary significantly. US emissions have been trending downward in bumpy fashion since they peaked in 2004. They fell 3.3 percent in 2023 but rose 1.3 percent in 2022 and 6.3 percent in 2021 amid a post-pandemic rebound.”When we looked at the Inflation Reduction Act a couple of years ago… we would have expected slightly lower emissions today than we’re seeing right now,” said King. Still, these investments may just need more time to pay off: with the report finding clean energy and transportation spending reached a record $71 billion in last year’s third quarter.”It’s kind of a mixed bag from my perspective,” King said.- Air conditioning demand -Positives in the report include a bigger share of green energy in the grid — solar and wind combined surpassed coal for the first time — and a drop in methane emissions from reduced coal use and cleaner oil and gas production.Climate scientist Michael Mann of the University of Pennsylvania told AFP he welcomed the continued decoupling of growth and emissions.But “emissions aren’t coming down anywhere near the rate they need to, yet at least,” he added.”Simply flatlining emissions puts the United States even farther off track from meeting its climate commitments,” warned Debbie Weyl, US Acting Director for the World Resources Institute.Rachel Cleetus, policy director with the climate and energy program at the Union of Concerned Scientists, called the findings “sobering,” noting the increased electricity demand came from residential buildings requiring more air conditioning.”Now that’s a reality, as we see year upon year of the temperature records being broken,” she told AFP, as 2024 is set to be named the hottest year on record.

British Foreign Secretary David Lammy on Thursday refused to condemn president-elect Donald Trump’s Greenland ambitions while insisting that the US acquiring the self-governing Danish territory is “not going to happen”.”I’m not in the business of condemning our closest ally,” Lammy told Sky News, adding that he was “in the business of interpreting what sits behind this and there are some very serious national economic security issues”.The comments contrast with the response of some European leaders on Wednesday to Trump refusing to rule out using economic or military force to acquire Greenland.Germany’s Olaf Scholz said the stance had sparked “notable incomprehension” and “uneasiness” among EU leaders, and later noted on social media that “borders must not be moved by force”.London, which prizes its so-called special relationship with Washington, is eager not to damage relations with Trump and his team under the UK’s new Labour government.It follows a number of Labour ministers previously making disparaging comments about the president-elect, including Lammy, who once described him as a “tyrant” and “xenophobic”.Trump has designs on the mineral- and oil-rich Arctic island, an autonomous territory of European Union member Denmark that itself has eyes on independence.He set alarm bells ringing on Tuesday at a news conference when he said the US needs Greenland “for national security purposes”.In a round of interviews on Thursday, Britain’s top diplomat branded the incoming US president’s remarks “classic Donald Trump” and said they were centred around “Americans’ national economic security”.”In the end, that is up to the people of Greenland and their own self-determination, and there is a discussion within Greenland about those very same issues,” he told Sky News.Asked by BBC radio how Britain would respond if Trump acted on his claim that the US might try to acquire Greenland by economic or military force, Lammy insisted that “it’s not going to happen”, noting that “no NATO allies have gone to war, since the birth of NATO”.But he was also careful not to criticise Trump, noting that while his “rhetoric” and “unpredictability” can be “destabilising”, the outcomes of that can be beneficial to Western allies.He cited Trump’s insistence on increased defence spending by NATO members as an example.Lammy added that Trump was addressing valid “concerns about Russia and China in the Arctic” as well as “national economic security” in his Greenland comments. “He recognises, I’m sure, that in the end, Greenland today is a (part of the) Kingdom of Denmark. There is a debate in Greenland about their own self-determination.”Lammy also noted that the US has troops and a military base on Greenland.”So it has got a stake in that Arctic theatre,” he added.

Wildfires threatened to engulf parts of Hollywood on Thursday as a growing number of blazes raged across Los Angeles, forcing tens of thousands of people to flee their homes and claiming at least five lives.Over 100,000 people have been told to flee at least five separate blazes, including in the heart of historic Hollywood, just a few hundred meters (yards) from the storied theaters of Hollywood Boulevard.Fighters in helicopters dumped water on the Hollywood Hills blaze where an evacuation order was issued for a number of streets in the historic district.Sharon Ibarra, 29, told AFP she had rushed into Hollywood when she heard of the blaze to see if she could help her boss with her two babies.”I am super nervous, scared because of everything that has happened in the other places,” she said. The sudden eruption created gridlock on Hollywood’s streets, hampering efforts by people who live in the area — a mixture of ritzy homes and rent-controlled apartments — to leave.Fast-moving flames fanned by powerful winds have levelled 1,500 structures, many of them multi-million dollar homes in a rolling tragedy that the US media describe as the worst in the city’s history.Los Angeles County Fire Chief Anthony Marrone said his crews were struggling with the scale and speed of the unfolding disasters.”We’re doing the very best we can. But no, we don’t have enough fire personnel in LA County between all the departments to handle this,” he said.New fires appeared to be spotting as embers were thrown up to 2.5 miles (four kilometers) including one that razed a large property late Wednesday in the densely populated Studio City area.Adam Vangerpen of Los Angeles County Fire Department said crews were fighting to stop this new fire from spreading.”It’s a four-story home… we did just have the winds pick up again, so we are seeing some ember casting,” he said.”Our hope is to hit it hard and make sure that we’re trying to keep it out of the brush right now, because with the winds picking up there in the hills, that is a concern of ours.”Millions of Angelenos have watched in horror as a series of blazes have erupted around America’s second biggest city, sparking panic and fear.Winds with gusts up to 100 miles (160 kilometers) an hour spread the fire around the ritzy Pacific Palisades neighborhood with lightning speed.At least 16,000 acres (6,500 hectares) burned there, with 1,000 homes and businesses razed.A separate 10,600-acre (4,300-hectare) fire was burning around Altadena, north of the city, where flames tore through suburban streets.- Lost everything -Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna said five people were known to have perished, with more deaths feared.Among those who died was 66-year-old Victor Shaw, whose sister told local broadcaster KTLA he had ignored pleas to leave as the fire swept through his Altendena area neighborhood because he wanted to stay and protect their home.”When I went back in and yelled out his name, he didn’t reply back,” Shari Shaw said.”I had to get out because the embers were so big and flying like a firestorm that I had to save myself.”Shaw’s body was found by a friend some time later on the driveway of his razed home, a garden hose in his hand.William Gonzales got out alive, but his Altadena home was gone.”We have lost practically everything; the flames have consumed all our dreams,” he told AFP.Ride-hailing companies Uber and Lyft are offering evacuating residents free rides to shelter locations.Pasadena fire chief Chad Augustin said up to 500 buildings had been lost to the flames in that area.He hailed the bravery of first responders. “Our death count today would be significantly higher without their heroic actions,” Augustin told reporters.US President Joe Biden cancelled a trip to Italy this week to focus on the federal response to the fires. “We’re doing anything and everything, and as long as it takes to contain these fires,” Biden earlier told reporters.His incoming successor Donald Trump blamed the California governor Gavin Newsom for the devastation, calling on him to resign. “This is all his fault,” Trump said on his Truth social platform. – Climate crisis -Having destroyed perhaps hundreds of multimillion-dollar homes, the Pacific Palisades fire looked set to be one of the costliest blazes on record.AccuWeather said it estimated up to $57 billion of losses.Wildfires are part of life in the US West and play a vital role in nature.But scientists say human-caused climate change is altering weather patterns.Southern California had two decades of drought that were followed by two exceptionally wet years, which sparked furious vegetative growth — leaving the region packed with fuel and primed to burn — and then has had no significant rain for eight months.

A top Waymo executive said Wednesday the United States could lead globally on autonomous driving, expressing hope that a national standard under the incoming Trump administration would boost safety.Tekedra Mawakana, co-chief executive of the Google-owned robotaxi venture, said the “race” around autonomous driving had “matured” compared with Donald Trump’s first presidential administration, alluding to a global competition in which the US company is competing with Chinese and German auto players.”This is a real opportunity for US leadership and so enabling safe sustainable transportation that is autonomous is very aligned with what I think this administration will want to do,” Mawakana said during a fireside chat interview at the Consumer Electronics Show. Tech experts expect the Trump administration to set a national standard on autonomous driving standards after Trump donor and Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk embraced the move.Musk, who is expected to play an influential role in the Trump White House, has expressed frustration with the gap between Texas and California when it comes to rules on autonomous vehicles.Musk plans to launch a robotaxi venture that would compete directly with Waymo. He is targeting the venture to begin by 2027.Mawakana declined to comment directly on whether she trusted Musk to treat competitors fairly in his dealings with Trump. But she welcomed competition, saying “making the road safer is an important mission, and it’s too big for one company.”Although autonomous driving is still a long way from mainstream use, Waymo made strides in 2024. The company operates commercially in three US cities and plans two more US city launches in 2025. It currently provides more than 150,000 trips weekly. Mawakana cautioned of the risk with a national standard of “a race to the bottom on safety,” but said Trump’s team had been “very forward-leaning” on autonomous driving.”As far as a national framework, that’ll be great. It’s just that that framework should require people to demonstrate their safety record,” she said.

A-list actors, musicians and other celebrities were among the tens of thousands of people affected by deadly wildfires in Los Angeles Wednesday, as the entertainment industry screeched to a halt.The showbiz capital has been besieged by multiple out-of-control blazes, with Hollywood events including a glitzy awards show and a Pamela Anderson film premiere among those cancelled as firefighters battle flames in hurricane-force winds.Hundreds of homes were destroyed in the swanky Pacific Palisades area, a favorite spot for celebrities where multimillion-dollar houses nestle on beautiful hillsides, while other infernos sprang up across the north of the city.Mandy Moore, the singer and “This Is Us” actress, told followers on Instagram she had fled with her children and pets from the path of a blaze that had left her Altadena neighborhood “leveled.” “My sweet home. I am devastated and gutted for those of us who’ve lost so much. I’m absolutely numb,” she wrote, in a caption to footage of the destruction.Emmy-winning actor James Woods posted a video on X showing flames engulfing trees and bushes near his Pacific Palisades home as he got ready to evacuate, and shortly afterwards said all the fire alarms were going off.”I couldn’t believe our lovely little home in the hills held on this long. It feels like losing a loved one,” Woods said.”Star Wars” star Mark Hamill told followers on Instagram that he had fled his Malibu home with his wife and pet dog, escaping down a road flanked by active fires.Fellow Emmy-winning actor Billy Crystal said the Pacific Palisades house he and his wife lived in for 46 years burned down on Wednesday.”Words cannot describe the enormity of the devastation we are witnessing and experiencing,” he said in a statement to People magazine. “Janice and I lived in our home since 1979. We raised our children and grandchildren here. Every inch of our house was filled with love,” he said.Oscar winner Jamie Lee Curtis was also forced to evacuate, later writing on Instagram: “Our beloved neighborhood is gone. Our home is safe. So many others have lost everything.”Meanwhile, next week’s unveiling of the Oscar nominations was pushed back until January 19, to give Academy members affected by fires more time to cast their ballots this week. – Premieres cancelled -Several other major Hollywood events have been called off or postponed due to the disaster.The annual Critics Choice Awards gala, which honors the year’s best in film and television and is attended by dozens of A-listers, was delayed from Sunday to January 26.Anderson’s premiere for “The Last Showgirl” was scrapped.Paramount cancelled a glitzy red-carpet screening of the Robbie Williams musical film “Better Man,” and Netflix pulled the plug on a press conference for its Golden Globe winner “Emilia Perez.”Filming of Los Angeles-based shows such as “Grey’s Anatomy,” “Hacks” and “Jimmy Kimmel Live” was paused. And the Universal Studios theme park was closed for the day due to the extreme winds and fire conditions.- ‘Burn’ -Steve Guttenberg — star of 1984 comedy “Police Academy” — was among those helping get people out of Pacific Palisades as the fire began spreading on Tuesday.The “Cocoon” actor expressed frustration at how some of those fleeing the blaze had abandoned their cars on one of the only roads in and out of the ritzy neighborhood.”If you leave your car… leave the key in there so a guy like me can move your car so that these fire trucks can get up there,” he told a live television broadcast.Reality TV personalities Heidi Montag and Spencer Pratt from “The Hills,” an MTV show that ran until 2010, said they lost their house after evacuating.”I’m watching our house burn down on the security cameras,” Pratt wrote on Snapchat.

Chinese companies have turned out in force again at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show, with their prospects overshadowed by the threat of steeper tariffs from incoming US president Donald Trump.XPeng’s “flying car” and TCL’s AI-enhanced television were just a few of the products offered by Chinese companies that have won attention at CES, the annual Las Vegas tech confab.The potential for Trump’s trade policies to roil the global tech industry has loomed large over the event. Trump campaigned on a threat to impose 60 percent tariffs on Chinese goods, and has reinterated a hardline stance since winning the November election.  Analysts view the threat as at least partly a negotiating tactic, but note that Trump’s first term included a bruising trade war with Beijing, including tariffs that were maintained and enhanced during President Joe Biden’s tenure. Chinese companies expressed varying levels of concern about the threat.”We are worried about Trump’s government policy, but we think it might not last long,” said Mekia Yang of startup Jitlife, which makes its “smart” suitcases in Guangdong Province.”Trump might act tough at the beginning, and then he might change, because there will be some pressure from domestic markets,” due to rising prices, she said. Zhanbin Ao of Mammotion Technology Co., which sells autonomous lawnmowers, acknowledged unease about new levies but said the company is currently shifting production to Thailand, Vietnam and other Asian countries. “So once we move our manufacturing to other countries, a tariff is not an issue for us,” he said.Other Chinese companies brushed off the threat. Haojia Dengyang of Shenzhen Haoqitansuo Technology, predicted its products would attract US customers even with new tariffs “because they’re valuable, they can really help people.”Shenzhen Haoqitansuo sells smartphone cases, charging devices and other products under the Torras brand in the United States.- Retaliation? -At a November CES press preview held after the election, organizers took a diplomatic line on politics. Gary Shapiro, president of CES organizer the Consumer Technology Association, expressed hope Trump would pivot from the aggressive antitrust posture of the Biden administration that he likened to “death by a million cuts.”But Shapiro also railed against tariffs, saying they amounted to a tax on consumers.Trump’s threatened 60 percent levy on Chinese goods “would be devastating,” Shapiro said.China and other targeted markets “are going to hit back on us, so our exports will be affected as well,” he said. “This is not good for the country.””We need a future of strong trade ties with our friends and allies around the world. In today’s world, no country can go it alone…we must avoid unnecessary tariffs,” Shapiro later said at an industry dinner Wednesday.Like their Chinese counterparts, US companies at CES have steered away from political discussion at product launch events. But executives told AFP the issue is top of mind, even if they aren’t sure exactly what to expect.John Pfeifer, CEO of Oshkosh, said most of the industrial company’s goods sold in the United States are made within the country’s borders, but a fraction are imported. “If they do a 20 percent blanket tariff on anything coming into the US, that would have an impact on us,” he said, pointing to operations in Europe, Mexico and India.”We’d have to decide, okay, what to do — to either reshore this or reengineer so that we can get a different supply base to avoid that tariff.”Oshkosh might also resort to price hikes if tariffs lift prices of critical parts or materials imported to US plants, Pfeifer said.  Like Oshkosh, US agricultural giant John Deere manufactures the vast majority of its equipment sold in the United States within the country’s borders.”It’s a little early to tell what the tariff situation would be, but we’ve navigated through this in the past,” said Deanna Kovar, president, Worldwide Agriculture & Turf Division at Deere.She described the impact on Deere’s products as secondary to the concerns about retaliatory tariffs.”Our biggest concern is to make sure our customers have markets for their products — the corn, the soybeans, the pistachios and almonds that they grow and that there aren’t retaliatory tariffs,” she said.”The most important thing is our customers and that their businesses are viable in the long run,” she said.

Jimmy Carter was to be honored Thursday with a state funeral at Washington’s National Cathedral, amid a groundswell of tributes honoring the 39th US president and the last from the so-called Greatest Generation.The service caps a week of mourning that has seen Americans quietly filing past the flag-draped coffin in the US Capitol to pay their respects to Carter, who died on December 29 at the age of 100 in his home state of Georgia.President Joe Biden will deliver the eulogy for his fellow Democrat at the Episcopal church that has been a traditional venue for send-offs of US presidents, from Dwight Eisenhower and Ronald Reagan to George H.W. Bush.Biden revealed in an interview with USA Today published Wednesday that Carter had asked him to do the honors when the pair — longstanding friends — met for the last time four years ago.”Carter was a decent man. I think Carter looked at the world not from here but from here, where everybody else lives,” Biden said as he gestured from above his head towards his heart.Biden’s living predecessors — Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Barack Obama and Donald Trump — are expected to join around 3,000 mourners at the service, and Thursday has been designated a national day of mourning, with federal offices closed.Carter, who served a single term before a crushing election loss to Ronald Reagan in 1980, was perceived as naive and weak in the dog-eat-dog world of Washington politic.- ‘Decent and humble’ -A more nuanced image of him has emerged as the years passed, reassessing achievements like the brokering of a peace deal between Israel and Egypt.He also received high praise for his post-presidential humanitarian efforts, and a Nobel Peace Prize in 2002.The first president to reach triple digits, he had been in hospice care since February 2023 in his hometown of Plains, Georgia, where he died and will be buried next to his late wife, former first lady Rosalynn Carter.Mourners begun paying their respects on Saturday, as the carefully choreographed six-day farewell got underway with US flags flying at half-staff around the country.A black hearse bearing Carter’s remains paused at his boyhood family peanut farm in Plains, where a bell was rung 39 times and staff stood in silent tribute.Crowds gathered along the roadside to say their goodbyes, snap photographs or salute as the motorcade rolled slowly past.Carter’s flag-draped casket arrived at Washington’s snow-covered US Capitol on Tuesday atop a gun carriage.It was accompanied by hundreds of service members, with military pallbearers carrying Carter to the Rotunda to lie in state ahead of Thursday’s ceremony — the first presidential funeral since Bush Senior died in 2018.Chuck Schumer, the leader of the Democrats in the Senate, described Carter as “one of the most decent and humble public servants we have ever seen.” “President Carter was a living embodiment of leadership through service, compassion, and a thirst for justice for all,” he said.

Homes reduced to ashes, businesses in flames, and in the midst of the devastation, haggard residents: the California city of Altadena, ravaged Wednesday by a violent fire, looked like an area that has just been bombed. “This was our home,” William Gonzales told AFP, pointing to smouldering ruins where only embers and a chimney remain.”We have lost practically everything,” he sighed. “The flames have consumed all our dreams.” Swathes of the Los Angeles area have been ravaged since Tuesday by violent fires that have killed at least five people.More than 100,000 people have been told to flee their homes in the face of flames and violent winds that have gusted up to 100 miles (160 kilometers) per hour.In Altadena, behind the mountains north of Los Angeles, firefighters have been overwhelmed by the scale of a blaze that has already destroyed around 500 buildings, including many homes.On Wednesday, the streets were filled with ash, with buildings everywhere in flames.AFP met a shopkeeper in his sixties who was crying in front of the ruins of his liquor store.”This was my whole life,” he sobbed.A dazed Jesus Hernandez said he did not know if his parents would be compensated for their $1.3 million house.”Hopefully the insurance can pay for most of it, if not, then we’re going to have to stay with friends or someone,” he said.- Water cut – Fires have sprouted all over the Los Angeles area in little more than 24 hours, with the latest breaking out in the Hollywood Hills, mere yards (meters) from storied Hollywood Boulevard.Vicious winds have flung embers up to 2.5 miles (4 kilometers), sparking new spot fires faster than firefighters can quell them.The Santa Ana winds that are currently blowing are a classic part of Californian autumns and winters. But this week, they have reached an intensity not seen since 2011, according to meteorologists. That has combined with tinder dry countryside to create the perfect fire storm — and a nightmare for firefighters who have also struggled with water supplies.In the Pacific Palisades fire, hydrants stopped working after massive storage tanks ran dry.David Stewart said he was not prepared to just surrender his neighborhood to the flames.”The county turned off our water supply so we’re out there with shovels throwing dirt on fires,” he told AFP.”We saved I think three neighbors’ houses so far but the fires are still moving towards our house.”He struggled to make sense of the area he has lived his whole life.”This was a just a little antique shop, a pizza place. These places have been here forever, ever since I’ve been alive.”A fretful Jesse Banks was trying to make contact with his son, who had fled the flames earlier in the day.”My son left the house before us on foot, he doesn’t have a cell phone or anything like that, so I’m searching for him now,” he said.”I’ve lived in this area for over 20 years and we’ve seen fires in the mountains and the hills and that, but never anything like this.” The fight is far from over. Wind speeds were expected to moderate, but a Red Flag warning — alerting residents to high fire risk — was set to remain in place until Friday evening.Amid the catastrophe, scientists’ warnings, which regularly remind us that humanity’s dependence on fossil fuels is increasing the frequency and intensity of extreme events, are being felt in the flesh. “It’s probably climate change affecting everything,” said shop owner Debbie Collins.”I’m sure it’s added to it, made this happen. The world’s just in a really bad place and we need to do more.”