Join Diesel, A Bookstore on Join us on Sunday November 10th at 3:00 pm as they welcome Obi Kaufmann to the store to discuss and sign The State of Fire: Why California Burns.  

There may be no greater representation of California’s ecological crisis than its fires. In recent years, they have become larger and deadlier than ever before, forcing us to reckon with how we have failed the land and the incredible cost of that negligence. Obi Kaufmann’s lushly illustrated new book, The State of Fire: Why California Burns  explores how we got here and how we may get out.

The story of California fires is surprising and ancient. Fire has always played a vital role in our ecosystem—it fertilizes the soil, creates easier hunting grounds for certain animals, and gives space for plants to root. In short: life flourishes after fires. But the fires of today are different. Centuries of logging, a lack of controlled burns, and the spread of invasive plant species has given rise to the gigafire and its corollary problems: massive smoke covers, erosion, mass death events in animal populations.