Most of the corporate press focused on the island\u2019s sensational visual destruction, official responses, body counts and destroyed structures. Meanwhile, news reports largely confused or denied the climate crisis’s contribution to the fire, and ignored the connections between fossil fuel use, increased CO2<\/sub> levels and planetary heating.<\/p>\n The Washington Post<\/strong> (8\/9\/23<\/a>) quoted Hawaii’s governor, “\u201cWe never anticipated in this state that a hurricane that did not make impact on our islands would cause these kind of wildfires”\u2014but the word “climate” doesn’t appear in the article.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n A long Washington Post<\/b> piece (8\/9\/23<\/a>) described Maui’s power outages, cell phone blackout, clogged roads and evacuations. It made no mention of the climate crisis.<\/p>\n The following day, the Post<\/b> (8\/10\/23<\/a>) reported that “the fires left 89 people dead and damaged or destroyed<\/a> more than 2,200 structures and buildings.\u201d Headlining the article, \u201cWhat We Know About the Cause of the Maui Wildfires,\u201d the paper didn’t include “climate change” or its synonyms in the text. Instead, the Post<\/b> identified three \u201crisk\u201d factors: \u201cmonths of drought, low humidity and high winds.\u201d What caused the months of drought on a tropical island not previously prone to wildfires? The Post<\/b> didn’t seem interested in pursuing the question.<\/p>\n The piece also offered no information for understanding the similarities to the fires that had raged across Canada and turned the skies of the Northeast an eerie color of orange only two months earlier (FAIR.org,<\/b> 7\/18\/23<\/a>). The only reference point the Post<\/b> gave for comparison was Hurricane Lane, which hit the Hawaiian Islands in 2018, causing heavy rains and later burning 3,000 acres of land\u2014yet the reporters made no connection between climate instability and stronger, more intense<\/a> storms.<\/p>\n The San Francisco Chronicle<\/b> (8\/10\/23<\/a>) published a stand-alone photo essay with captions, many taken with drones or aerial photography, that included a series of before-and-after images of Lahaina and the loss of historic sites, including the scorching of the banyan tree planted in 1870 to mark the 50th anniversary of the arrival of missionaries on the island. Though under the heading of \u201cClimate,\u201d no mention was made of the changing climate.<\/p>\n Even when specifically addressing the impact of climate disruption, the New York Times<\/strong> (8\/10\/23<\/a>) fails to mention the role of oil and other fossil fuels.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Some in the press did draw connections to the climate crisis. For instance, Axios<\/b> (8\/10\/23<\/a>), in a piece headlined, “The Climate Link to Maui’s Wildfire Tragedy,\u201d framed the disaster within a climate discourse: \u201cResearchers say climate change has likely been a contributing factor to the deadly wildfires in Hawaii.\u201d Axios<\/b> also drew correlations to the \u201csummer of blistering, record-breaking heat, that puts climate in focus<\/a>,” referencing the wildfires destroying Canadian forests and creating a health hazard across the US.<\/p>\n Importantly, Axios<\/b> went further, admitting that climate change is a consequence of human activity: \u201cIncreased wildfire risk is also a symptom of human-caused climate change, scientists say.\u201d A link took readers to previous Axios<\/b> reporting (5\/16\/22) on research that tracks wildfire risks to the built environment, writing, \u201cClimate change will cause a steep increase in the exposure of US properties to wildfire risks during the next 30 years.\u201d Yet even while making these connections, Axios<\/b> failed to include fossil fuels and CO2<\/sub> in the text.<\/p>\n A New York<\/b> Times<\/b> piece headlined “How Climate Change Turned Lush Hawaii into a Tinder Box” (8\/10\/23<\/a>) seemed focused on climate disruption: \u201cAs the planet heats up, no place is protected from disasters.\u201d It documented the \u201clong-term decline\u201d in annual rainfall,\u201d matter-of-factly citing multiple causes such as El Ni\u00f1o fluctuations, storms moving north and less cloud cover. But like Axios<\/b>, the Times<\/b> remained silent on what\u2019s at the root of all this: fossil fuel combustion, and the gas and oil industries.<\/p>\n More, the Times<\/b> asserted \u201cIt\u2019s difficult to directly attribute any single hurricane to climate change\u201d\u2014as though there are some weather events that are affected by the climate, and others that are not. This is the discredited language of climate denial and doubt<\/a>, pushed for decades by Exxon<\/a> and other mega-fossil fuel corporations. Why include it, when the next sentence acknowledges that bigger storms result from increasing temperatures?<\/p>\n The report released by the IPCC in 2021 (8\/9\/21<\/a>) did not mince words:<\/p>\n The alarm bells are deafening, and the evidence is irrefutable: greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuel burning and deforestation are choking our planet and putting billions of people at immediate risk.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n The UN Secretary-General called it \u201ccode red for humanity.\u201d Bill McKibben\u2019s 2021<\/a> review of the report in the New Yorker<\/b> (8\/11\/21<\/a>) charged humans with \u201cwreaking havoc\u201d on the planet: We are \u201csetting it on fire.\u201d<\/p>\n Much is now understood about climate change and how best to convey information about it clearly. It\u2019s important to lead with the main point that the planet is warming, and that fossil fuel combustion is the greatest contributor. In Communicating the Science of Climate Change<\/i> (2011<\/a>), Richard Summerville and Susan Joy Hassol of Climate Communication write that a common mistake in climate messaging is overdoing \u201cthe level of detail, and people can have difficulty sorting out what is important. In short, the more you say, the less they hear.<\/a>”<\/p>\n The Washington Post<\/strong> (8\/12\/23<\/a>) saying that the fires were also caused by “weather patterns that happen naturally” is like reporting that a house didn’t burn down just because of arson, but also because it was made of wood.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Two days later, the Washington Post <\/b>(8\/12\/23<\/a>) had solidified what can be described as a “discourse of confusion\u201d with the headline, \u201cMaui Fires Not Just Due to Climate Change but a \u2018Compound Disaster.’\u201d<\/p>\n There is not just one \u201cstandout factor,\u201d it asserted, but different \u201cagents acting together.\u201d The article explained that rising temperatures contributed to the severity of the blaze, but \u201cglobal warming could not have driven the fires by itself.\u201d Other \u201chuman influences\u201d on \u201cclimate and environment\u201d are causing these disasters to escalate. Making a distinction between planetary warming and other \u201chuman influences\u201d on \u201cenvironment\u201d muddies the connections<\/a> between a warming planet and extreme weather events, and confuses the realities of climate disruption. It obscures who is responsible and what must change.<\/p>\n For climate scientist David Ho (Twitter<\/b>, 8\/10\/23<\/a>), a professor at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, the cause of the Maui fires was straightforward and stated clearly:<\/p>\n People associate Hawaii with tropical conditions, but rainfall has been decreasing for decades because of climate change, drying out the lush landscape and making it increasingly susceptible to wildfire damage.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Another climate scientist and energy policy expert, Leah Stokes at UC Santa Barbara, was also clear about climate change and the Maui fires. Over a image of Lahaina, she posted (Twitter<\/b>, 8\/9\/23<\/a>): “This is climate change. Every day we delay cutting fossil fuels, more tragedies like this happen.”<\/p>\n When ABC News<\/b> (8\/15\/23<\/a>) went even further and published the headline: \u201cWhy Climate Change Can\u2019t Be Blamed for the Maui Wildfires,\u201d climate reporter Emily Atkin, of the newsletter Heated<\/b> (8\/17\/23<\/a>), went to the article\u2019s sources to ask if the headline phrasing accurately reflected their comments. They all said their words had been taken out of context. The headline was later edited to add \u201centirely\u201d after \u201cblamed.”<\/p>\n The incident was picked by the Poynter Institute<\/b> (8\/18\/23<\/a>), which quoted Atkin saying, \u201cClimate change absolutely can be partially blamed for the severity of the Maui disaster because climate change worsens wildfires, and climate change plays a role in literally all weather events.\u201d<\/p>\n Kaniela Ing (Democracy Now!<\/strong>, 8\/11\/23<\/a>): “Donald Trump, Ron DeSantis, Tim Scott, Joe Manchin, oil companies and anyone in power who denies climate change, to me, are the arsonists here.”<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n That sort of reporting done by the Post<\/b> and ABC<\/b> discourages much-needed action\u2014as does reporting like NPR<\/b>\u2019s \u201cThe Role Climate Change Played in Hawaii\u2019s Devastating Wildfires\u201d (All Things Considered<\/b>, 8\/10\/23<\/a>). That piece led with standard crisis reporting and a resident of Lahaina who said everything he had is gone, then moved to details of an island in ruins. Testimonial descriptions included one woman\u2019s story of jumping into the water and witnessing her pet and friend dying. A mobile doctor says, \u201cIt just seems unfair.\u201d We are left with feelings of despair.<\/p>\n Reporting on our environmental crisis, heavy on description and ratings-driven horror, and mostly devoid of clear explanations and solutions, most establishment media offer only despair and inevitability. It has long been understood<\/a> that the presentation of images and discussions of the horrors of environmental and human suffering, presented without direct actions to be taken, are experienced as an anguishing emotional blow.<\/p>\n As Erin Hawley and Gabi Mocatta wrote in Popular Communication<\/b> (4\/22<\/a>),\u00a0 addressing planetary suffering should be told with new stories where audiences can \u201cwrite themselves into the story of building a better future.\u201d Solution-focused storytelling offers accurate documentation of the crisis, but follows with policies able to address our current climate emergency, and even details of available technologies and transformative climate solutions (FAIR.org<\/b>, 7\/18\/23<\/a>).<\/p>\n There are solutions in place, which are rarely mentioned in corporate media. For example, Stanford University published research (One Earth<\/strong>, 12\/20\/19<\/a>) that compared alternative energy to the existing model in 143 countries, accounting for 99.7% of the world\u2019s CO2<\/sub> emissions. Researchers found that transitioning to 100% wind, water and solar (WWS) reduces global energy needs by 57%, energy costs by 61%, and social costs by 91%, while avoiding blackouts and creating millions more jobs than lost.<\/p>\n As Native Hawaiian Kaniela Ing told Democracy Now! <\/b>(8\/11\/23<\/a>): \u201cWe need to end and phase out, deny all new fossil fuel permits, and really empower the communities that build back ourselves democratically. That\u2019s the solution for it.\u201d<\/p>\n Corporate journalism is currently failing to tell, accurately and compellingly, the most important story of our time: what the causes of the climate crisis are, and what can be done to stop the destruction of people and the planet as we know it.<\/p>\n Featured Image: Weather Channel<\/strong> (8\/16\/23<\/a>)<\/em><\/p>\n The post Maui Fire Coverage Ignored Fossil Fuel Responsibility<\/a> appeared first on FAIR<\/a>.<\/p>\n \nThis content originally appeared on FAIR<\/a> and was authored by Robin Andersen. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" News reports largely confused the climate crisis’s contribution to the fire, and ignored the role of fossil fuels in planetary heating.\u00a0<\/p>\n The post Maui Fire Coverage Ignored Fossil Fuel Responsibility<\/a> appeared first on FAIR<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8664,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1303,478,44052,851,1705,259,4856,42689,35781,43268,67119,45312,27150,262,263],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1191334"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8664"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1191334"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1191334\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1194732,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1191334\/revisions\/1194732"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1191334"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1191334"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1191334"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Crisis reporting\u2019s lack of context\u00a0<\/b><\/h3>\n
![\"WaPo:](\"https:\/\/fair.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/WaPo-Maui-350x309.png\")
<\/p>\n‘A symptom of human-caused climate change’<\/b><\/h3>\n
![\"NYT:](\"https:\/\/fair.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/NYT-Maui-350x379.png\")
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‘Climate change can’t be blamed’<\/b><\/h3>\n
![\"WaPo:](\"https:\/\/fair.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/WaPo-Maui-Climate-350x327.png\")
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Discouraging action<\/b><\/h3>\n
![\"Democracy](\"https:\/\/fair.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/Democracy-Now-Maui-350x202.png\")
<\/p>\n
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