California. We like to think we lead the nation when it comes to culture, tech, politics, whatever.

But we're also setting all sorts of records and something that we're not really happy with.

Natural disasters.

Dangerous heat, explosive wildfires, and now the possibility of floods.

California is getting it all.

The flames were 300 feet in the air, the trees were

exploding. Meanwhile, the rest of the world says, hold my beer. Heat waves in Europe, colossal floods

in Pakistan, prolonged and severe droughts in China, the Horn of Africa and the United States.

There is nothing natural about the new scale of these disasters.

They are the price of humanity's fossil fuel addiction.

I'm Gustav Areano.

You're listening to The Times, essential news from the LA Times.

It's Monday, September 26, 2022.

Today, record wildfires, record drought, record heat, record rainfall, record floods, record floods, record hail, record records.

When Mother Nature is setting records every year when it comes to doom and gloom,

what can we do?

It's times like these where we fall back on our monthly panel of peril,

my colleagues of catastrophe, those de montsapants of dread, who try to give us solace in these very, very dark and humid times.

Yep, it's time for our masters of disasters.

Zazza, zza, zza, zza.

Musica maestro.

In the wildfire chair, we have Alex Wigglesworth.

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