Last week, wildfires ravaged the island of Maui, which forms part of the State of Hawaiʻi. Driven by the perform storm of high-pressure areas and Hurricane Dora, high winds blew the fires across the island. Additional fires started when live electric poles collapsed. Hundreds were evacuated and millions of dollars of property was destroyed. Elsewhere, at least 55 people have died in the town of Lāhainā. Furthermore, smaller and quickly-contained fires broke out on the islands of Hawai’i and O’ahu.
The fires have been attributed to the spread of invasive grass species like Guinea Grass and a prolonged period of hotter, drier weather. Additionally, recent US National Climate Assessments show that the state has received less rainfall. This is consistent with projections about the impact of anthropogenic climate change. However, the specific cause of these wildfires is as yet unknown. President Joe Biden stated he was diverting “all available federal resources” to Hawaii. Meanwhile, celebrities like Floyd Mayweather made donations to help the victims. However, the donation put forward by the 12 professional sports teams in Los Angeles has been widely criticized.
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LA Sports Teams Donate Less Than Half A Million Dollars
Through the Lakers, it was announced that 12 professional sports teams of Los Angeles (Angels, Angel City FC, Chargers, Clippers, Dodgers, Ducks, Galaxy, Kings, LAFC, Lakers, Rams, and Sparks) had come together to make a joint donation to victims of the wildfires. Those 12 franchises are worth a combined $31 billion. And yet they gave a joint donation of just $450,000. That's an average contribution of $37,500.
What made the situation worse for many social media users was the self-fellating press release that went to great lengths to talk about how much California teams had utilized facilities in Hawaii before also having the audacity to ask fans to also contribute via the American Red Cross. All of this while donating an amount equivalent to 0.0014% of their combined worth. As a reminder, the Lakers are paying LeBron James $47.6 million for the 2023-24 season. Chalk up another W for rampant, late-stage capitalism.
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