2021 has been a bad year for disasters: Drought. Oil spills. Bomb cyclones. Wildfires. Delta. Omicron. Yet if you’re reading this, you’ve survived.

Our Masters of Disasters — L.A. Times reporters Ron Lin, Alex Wigglesworth and Rosanna Xia — reflect on the year and offer a bit of hope on apocalyptic issues such as the coronavirus, the environment and wildfires.

More reading:

The American West went through climate hell in 2021. But there’s still hope

More than 400 toxic sites in California are at risk of flooding from sea level rise

Newsletter: We write about environmental calamity. Here’s what gives us hope