Californians don’t see the need to adapt to wildfires unless they have close experience with them.

The past four years have seen vast wildfires in California which have burned millions of acres of land and killed over 100 people. In new research, Iris Hui and Bruce Cain look at how wildfires and their effects influence whether Californians support efforts to adapt to them. They find that, unless they have experienced wildfires close to them, most Californians think that wildfire adaptation is an individual’s responsibility. They also find that, compared to Democrats, Republicans are much less concerned about the harmful smoke wildfires produce.