Yale freshman Violet Affleck revealed that she experienced prolonged arguments with her mother, actress Jennifer Garner, while staying in a Los Angeles, California hotel during the devastating January wildfires that swept through their Pacific Palisades neighborhood.
The 19-year-old daughter of Garner and Ben Affleck detailed these familial tensions in a research paper published on May 18 in Yale University’s Global Health Review. Her paper, titled “A Chronically Ill Earth: COVID Organizing as a Model Climate Response in Los Angeles,” begins with a candid account of family discord amid the crisis.
“I spent the January fires in Los Angeles arguing with my mother in a hotel room,” Violet wrote in her analysis, which links climate emergencies with public health responses.
The disputes arose from differing family responses to the wildfires that began on January 7, 2025. Violet described her mother as overwhelmed by the destruction in their long-term residential area. Having grown up in Los Angeles with knowledge of climate science, Violet explained her concern was not if the Palisades would suffer fire damage, but when it would happen.
The Yale student expressed dissatisfaction with how adults handled the emergency. She recounted conversations with other displaced individuals who attributed the wildfires to unfortunate weather conditions rather than climate-related causes. Many focused on rebuilding timelines, financial impacts, and the crisis’s unusual nature.
The January fires were among California’s most destructive on record, resulting in at least 30 fatalities and displacing over 200,000 residents. More than 18,000 homes and businesses were destroyed across approximately 89 square miles.
The Palisades Fire burned nearly 37 square miles in the Pacific Palisades and parts of Malibu, while the Eaton Fire destroyed over 22 square miles north of Pasadena. Extreme Santa Ana winds, reaching speeds of 100 mph in certain areas, and severe drought conditions fueled the fires’ rapid spread.
Family tensions extended to Violet’s younger sibling. She recounted confusion with her 13-year-old brother, Samuel, who questioned the link between global warming and wind speed. “Hopefully, most of us understand the climate crisis better than my little brother,” Violet noted.
In her academic work, Violet argued that climate change poses an escalating threat driven by consumption habits predominant among affluent populations in wealthy countries. She stated these behaviors have already exposed much of America and the world to extreme weather patterns, rising sea levels, and agricultural challenges.
Her paper compared wildfire responses with COVID-19 pandemic reactions, emphasizing society’s preference for returning to normalcy rather than addressing systemic issues. Violet suggested that community reactions to crises like the LA fires reflect ongoing approaches to climate challenges, similar to pandemic management, focused on restoration rather than root causes.
Violet’s public health advocacy started before the wildfire crisis. In July 2024, she addressed the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors about mask mandates. During that meeting, she shared her experience of contracting an illness in 2019. “I contracted a post-viral condition in 2019. I’m OK now, but I saw firsthand that medicine does not always have answers to the consequences of even minor viruses,” she explained.
She highlighted that one-tenth of infections result in long COVID, describing it as a serious neurological and cardiovascular condition that can impair a person’s ability to work, see, move, and think.
The Pacific Palisades holds special significance for the Affleck-Garner family. Garner has lived in or near the area for 25 years, raising her three children with Ben Affleck there. The divorced couple, who married in 2005 and separated in 2018, also have children Fin, 16, and Samuel, 13, along with Violet.
After the fires, Garner expressed feelings of survivor’s guilt in a media interview. She discussed feeling remorseful while walking through her undamaged home, questioning how she could help others and what resources she could offer, given her own security and shelter.
The Palisades Fire started around 10:30 a.m. Pacific Time on January 7, initially covering about 10 acres. Strong wind conditions allowed the fire to expand at a rate equivalent to three football fields per minute during peak afternoon hours. The blaze grew from 20 to 200 acres within 20 minutes.
The Palisades Fire destroyed 6,837 structures, marking it as Los Angeles’ most destructive fire incident. On January 31, 2025, fire suppression teams fully contained both major fires, concluding 24 days of emergency operations.
Violet concluded her Yale paper with a call for climate action. She likened COVID-aware and disabled individuals celebrating prevented disease transmission to climate researchers recognizing that preventing each degree of temperature rise is a victory. “It’s time for everyone who cares about the latter to engage with the people, the methods, and the political commitments that make the former possible,” she concluded.
