In a recent trip Lompoc, the place I grew up, I was extremely discouraged by what I saw. Living in San Francisco has led me to believe that most people have taken notice of climate change -- apparently not.

For a community heavily reliant on agriculture, they don’t seem to be as worried as they should be. I was born in Orange County, where most of my family still is, but raised in Lompoc. I have always proudly defended my hometown to those who love to make fun of it (which is most everyone who has heard of it). It is a beautiful place known for its flower fields, wineries, murals and beaches.

In a recent drive down H Street in Lompoc, which is also HWY1, I realized that the only things I could see from my car windows were the gigantic hubcaps of the lifted trucks next to me. No one there makes a point to remember to do little things like turn off the lights, not one person brought their own shopping bags with them, and no one wanted to hear me ramble on and on about global warming.

With over 10 percent of the county burned up in the recent Zaca and Sedgewick Fires, I hope that this could finally be the push Santa Barbara County needs to start giving a shit about its frivolous abuse of the environment.

Before the outbreak of the fires in San Diego, the Zaca Fire was considered the worst wildfire in California history. The fire began on July 4 and burned up 240,000 acres of the Los Padres National Forest before becoming 100% contained on Sept. 2.

Lompoc Firefighter Mike Brown, who fought the fire, said that due to the location and climate this fire was a particularly difficult to contain. “What is left over [of the burn area] is what we call a ‘moonscape’… there is nothing left.”

Barbara Huebel, a receptionist for the Sedgewick Reserve, a wildlife research center for UCSB students where another fire broke out last Sunday, said they are just trying to get back to business as usual. “Life goes on,” she said, “We are plugging our computers back in and turning on the air purifiers.”

“The smoke from all the fires has just been accumulating over the [Santa Ynez] Valley,” Kevin Robb, a longtime friend of mine said. He mentioned also that there is a visible haze over the entire area as the wind blows smoke from the south north into the Santa Ynez Valley.

In the Lompoc Unified School District (LUSD), physical education classes and other sports were temporarily halted on Monday and Tuesday due to air quality. Frank Lynch, the LUSD Superintendent said that they receive an air quality report from Santa Barbara every morning, and on Wednesday they approved the schools to again hold PE and sports practices. He said that they are relying on the off-shore winds and the Lompoc’s usual thick cloud of fog, the marine layer, to come back.

Jalama Beach, which could be considered my dad’s second home and is one of Santa Barbara County’s favorite hideaways, has become the home for some San Diego evacuees.

“Jalama Steve”, or Steve Eittrem my dad’s good friend and owner of the Jalama store and the Jalama Beach Café in nearby Lompoc, said that the beautiful sunsets he, my dad, and their friends love to barbeque and watch every night are now hazy from the smoke blowing north from Malibu.

When I called him to ask about the fires, he handed the phone over to Carolyn Eoff, who was eating at the store. She is from Encinitas, Calif. (San Diego County) and is camping out at the beach along with some other families from the area. She was extremely concerned about the situation facing her on her return trip.

‘The air quality is so bad down there, some of our kids have asthma,” Eoff said, “and we can’t keep them locked indoors all day”. She noted also that her children’s elementary school has become a storage facility for livestock from the ranches of the inland areas of San Diego County. The playing fields have essentially become makeshift ranches.

Eoff said that this new set of blazes is more alarming than she has ever seen before. “We put up with fires every year or so,” she said “But this is the first time I have ever heard newscasters say that the fire could burn all the way to the coast.”

I asked her if she was prepared for the worst upon returning to San Diego. “[We told our kids] this is a natural disaster, we may lose all of our things but we will still have each other, and that is what is important.”

With wildfires threatening to incinerate the most populated part of the most populated state in this country, how dare we say that global warming is a myth. It hurts to turn on the TV and see Southern California looking so much like New Orleans did a couple years ago.

My grandmother, who has lived in the city of Orange for over 40 years, grew up in New Orleans. She says that the fire is now in the hills behind their house and because of the air quality they are only leaving the house to go to the doctor or church.

Her relatives and friends in New Orleans have now been calling her to make sure she is ok. On the phone with her earlier, she told me about a friend of hers that didn’t show at church this Sunday. When she called her, her friend said that the fire was coming straight for her before hanging up the phone. She hasn't heard from her yet.

Brian Loper, an SF State international relations major from Santa Barbara told me today that the Red Cross is holding fundraisers tonight on State Street, as the nearby fires in Ventura County continue to burn.

I can only hope that these fires will make more people fully aware of the reality of global climate change.

» E-mail Angela Bacca @ abacca@sfsu.edu