by Katy Grimes, E&E Legal Senior Media Fellow and California Globe Editor
As Appearing in the California Globe
Low-information journalists fail to address more immediate, actionable causes’
Yesterday the Sacramento Bee claimed that the Palisades fires are because of climate change. “No joke,” as the outgoing President likes to say.
Sacramento Bee: Climate change fueled LA area wildfires in CA, experts say
PBS: Warming climate created ‘perfect storm’ for catastrophic fires, NASA researcher says
NBC Los Angeles: The clear links between the California wildfires and climate change
New York Times: The California Wildfires Are the Latest Disaster Supercharged by climate change: “Extreme weather events — deadly heat waves, floods, fires and hurricanes — are the consequences of a warming planet, scientists say.”
Do these reporters actually believe the fires were the result of rising temperatures around the globe, instead of being fueled by dense vegetation that had built up over years, as is the case with the Palisades fire?
Claiming that these fires are because of climate change is patently absurd. I don’t think anyone who just watched their home and neighborhood and their kids’ schools burn to the ground is thinking “that damned climate change…”
