Ecology of Fear: Los Angeles and the Imagination of Disaster

Los Angeles has been going through it. Deep droughts. A lot of rain. The constant expectation regarding earthquakes. Political unrest. And, of course, the wildfires.

This accurately reflects the situation in 2025. It also was accurate in the 1990s. And many times beforehand.

In 1998, Mike Davis published Ecology of Fear: Los Angeles and the Imagination of Disaster. In it he gives voice to disaster in Los Angeles, both in reality and in imagination.

He ran through the gamut of disasters which Los Angeles has, does, and will continue to experience. He spoke of the flooding which can attend to the “Pineapple Express,” which we now understand as atmospheric rivers (ARs), and detailed the many floods which the Los Angeles Basin has show more experienced over the past century and a half. He addressed the rampant urban expansion within the Los Angeles Basin, how and why it went down, and the consequences which attend to it. His famous longform article, The Case for Letting Malibu Burn, is presented in its fullness, not merely a discourse on the Santa Ana winds and the inevitability of major fires like the Palisades and Eaton Fires, but also embedded within it a discussion of the many urban fires within slums in the history of Los Angeles which tend not to get the same press. The author then presented his personal research into the history of tornadoes in Los Angeles: their very real existence despite all attempts to redefine them or suppress knowledge of them, the patterns they follow, how no one has died from them in the past century (extraordinarily), and how they will persist despite everyone thinking we do not get tornadoes in Los Angeles. He also spoke of the wildlife within the mountains and how we relate to them. He provided a masterful exploration into all the various ways Los Angeles has been destroyed in literature and film and what those stories say about how Los Angeles was perceived and those who came up with them. He concluded by considering Los Angeles’ unique “official nightmare,” Blade Runner, and what seemed like, in the late 90s, the ways in which society in Los Angeles would continue to degenerate.

The author’s cynicism overall does him well until at the end, for whereas the 21st century surely has seen a lot of challenges for Los Angeles, it has not quite turned out to be Blade Runner just yet.

This is a powerful and prescient compilation of essays, and one very much worth reading for those who wish to understand the dark side of this paradise. It should not be a surprise when a lot of these things happen. We just do well to mitigate our risk to the best of our abilities, be prepared for the likely disaster prospects, and negotiate life in this environment appropriately. show less

This is an outstanding book with a wide appeal. I think everyone from people interested in the sociology of cities to science fiction fans to readers who wonder how humans can ignore obvious risks will find something in this book to like. It discusses many of the problems of Los Angeles including earthquakes, droughts, mudslides, unplanned urbanization, wildfires, tornadoes, wild animals and urban blight. In the middle he pauses to read every book and see every movie that depicts the destruction of Los Angeles. He breaks them down into categories and then discusses several from each group.

On top of having so much information, this book is a joy to read, moving along at a rapid pace and pulling the reader in. I have only two complaints show more which made me rate this 4 instead of 5. One, there isn't one cohesive over-riding thesis. Two, is that there is no bibliography so when you want more information (or the list of all the dystopian LA fiction), you have to ferret it out of the footnotes. show less

Loved this book and City of Quartz. Highly recommended to anyone interested in LA or southern California.

Davis is a brainwashed rabid Marxist and uses natural disasters combined with convoluted reasoning and his dubious ethics to attack capitalism and wealthy people. Sometimes he does come to some valid conclusions, like his case for letting brush fires burn in Malibu but he does so for all the wrong reasons (his bitter desire to punish the wealthy instead of promoting individual preparedness and cost cutting on firefighting). Book is replete with recent California history of disasters, photos, and policy advocacy. Despite being an evil Marxist he brings up some good points and this book is thought provoking in a refreshing "think-outside-the-box," sort of way.

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