“Mom, don’t look in the rearview mirror!” It was a weekday afternoon in November 1993 and our then 12-year-old daughter Erege was sitting in the front seat next to my wife Elyse. Our 5-year-old son Miles was in the backseat. I was driving right behind them with our three dogs and a few hastily packed suitcases. We were on the Pacific Coast Highway driving away from Malibu into LA and away from the Malibu/Old Topanga fire that had been raging since mid-morning. Erege had noticed that the fire had jumped the highway and was threatening to trap the line of cars that followed behind us. 

For us this weekend was déjà vu all over again. But this time, the Santa Anas were even stronger and the fires brought down the Presbyterian Church and Malibu’s landmark Kashan Castle. Our hearts go out to everyone affected. The only consolation is that because it was Sunday, families were together. One of the scariest things about the 1993 fire was being separated from our kids who were in school.

It appears we're living in a new age of mega-fires, forest infernos ten times bigger than the fires we're used to seeing. The American West is burning. Because of global warming, the fire season is over two months longer than it was 15 years ago. 60 Minutes led off with this story yesterday. Last fire season was the worst in recorded history. This year is already a close second, with two months to go. More than eight million acres have burned this year already.

"As fires continue to burn, these mega-fires continue to burn, we may see ultimately a majority, maybe more than half of the forest land converting to other forest, other types of ecosystems," one expert was quoted. CBS’s Scott Pelley remarked to one of the “Hotshots” as the elite federal firefighters are called, "You know, there are a lot of people who don't believe in climate change." "You won't find them on the fire line in the American West anymore," he replied. "'Cause we've had climate change beat into us over the last ten or fifteen years. We know what we’re seeing, and we're dealing with a period of climate, in terms of temperature and humidity and drought that's different than anything people have seen in our lifetimes."

I got a sneak peek at Planet in Peril, the new CNN documentary that will air in primetime this week. On the heels of An Inconvenient Truth, The 11th Hour and countless of specials, Planet in Peril is another must-see.

From their website: CNN takes viewers around the world in a two-part, four-hour documentary that examines our changing planet. This worldwide investigation, shot in high definition, looks at four key issues: climate change, vanishing habitats, disappearing species and human population growth. To tell this story, Anderson Cooper, Dr. Sanjay Gupta and Animal Planet's Jeff Corwin traveled to some of the most remote and remarkable places on Earth. From exposing illegal wildlife trading undercover in Southeast Asia to seeing first–hand the devastating effects of deforestation in Brazil, they have gathered evidence on the unsettling changes taking place all around us. Planet in Peril premieres October 23 and 24 at 9 p.m. ET.

Tune in.