Featured Image Credit: Bellocqimages/Bauer-Griffin/GC Images
Topics: Ben Affleck, Celebrity, Environment, Climate Change, Parenting, Gen Z
Lucy Devine
Topics: Ben Affleck, Celebrity, Environment, Climate Change, Parenting, Gen Z
Jennifer Garner's daughter Violet Affleck has spoken about the argument she had with her mother during the wildfires in California earlier this year.
Back in January, tens of thousands of people were forced to flee their homes when devastating wildfires ripped across the region.
The fires, which began to spread rapidly on January 7, took the lives of at least 30 people, and many - including some of Hollywood's biggest celebrities - lost their homes in the blaze.
One celebrity who had to evacuate was Jennifer Garner, who, along with her daughter Violet Affleck, moved into a hotel room after fleeing their home.
Advert
Months on from the disaster and Violet, 19, has spoken about an argument she had with Garner while the fires were taking place.
Writing an essay for Yale University, where she studies, Violet said: "I spent the January fires in Los Angeles arguing with my mother in a hotel room.
"She was shell-shocked, astonished at the scale of destruction in the neighborhood where she raised myself and my siblings. I was surprised at her surprise: as a lifelong Angelena and climate-literate member of generation Z, my question had not been whether the Palisades would burn but when."
Violet explained that they had gone to the hotel to escape the smoke, when people started comparing the fires to the Covid pandemic.
"I found my position to be an uncommon one: people spoke of how long rebuilding would take, how much it would cost, and how tragically odd the whole situation had been," she wrote.
"The crisis was acute, a burst of bad luck. It had come from a combination of high winds and low rains – what, my little brother asked, did global warming have to do with the speed of the wind? Outside, people wandered, faces covered by N95s. 'This feels like COVID,' said one wild-eyed woman clutching two leashed Yorkies. 'We’re all in masks.'"
Violet explained that she 'hoped' people understood the climate crisis 'more than [her] little brother', explaining that it is 'accelerating'.
"We know that it’s anthropogenic, driven by unsustainable consumption patterns concentrated among the wealthiest citizens of the wealthiest countries, all of which have already subjected most of this country and the world to deadly temperatures, fire-flood cycles, rising seas, and dying crops," she added.
"But our bewildered response to crises like the LA fires tell us we may still be accustomed to addressing the climate crisis like the COVID-19 pandemic: as a question of how fast we can get back around to pretending like the problem is gone."
Violet is Garner's eldest child who she shares with ex Ben Affleck.
They are also parents to Seraphina, 16 and Samuel, 13.