California fires: When disaster fans flames of inequality

California is under a state of emergency, ordering evacuations, battling fast-burning fires, and dealing with massive preemptive power outages. It is experienced with the evacuations and firefighting, which is complicated by seasonal high winds. The power outages, on the other hand, are something new here in the northern part of the state.

Around 2 million people lost power over the weekend as the mammoth utility, Pacific Gas & Electric, cut electricity in a planned “public safety power shut-off.” It is the second round of mass outages in less than a month, with another expected on Tuesday.

The utility, which sought bankruptcy protection due to the threat of suits from past fires, calls the outages the “new normal,” necessary to prevent its equipment from sparking a catastrophic fire under high-wind and bone-dry conditions. The fire-season shut-offs, says PG&E, could last a decade as it seeks to modernize its vast network.

If this is the new normal, it has broad implications for the vitality of the world’s fifth-largest economy –

“Who can afford to lose food?”Unequal cost of disasterKnocking on doors