The Press Makes Sporadic Connections Between Extremes Like LA's Fires And Climate Breakdown - And It's Not Nearly Enough

TThe Los Angeles fires represent a seminal moment for the climate crisis – and for journalism. These are not the wildfires of seasons past. They are mega-fires that have now burned an area larger than the entire city of San Francisco. They are likely to be the costliest disaster in US history, California’s governor, Gavin Newsom, has predicted. At last count, a staggering 6 million people remained under a critical fire threat. Alas, these mega-fires have called forth a mega-failure by much of the news media. A review of coverage to date shows that most journalism is still not accurately representing how the climate crisis is upending our civilization by driving increasingly frequent and severe extreme weather.

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Space is especially at a premium in TV and radio journalism, where reporters sometimes squabble with their producers for an extra 10 seconds of air time. But that didn’t stop CBS News from making the climate connection when using the LA fires as a news peg when examining former president Jimmy Carter’s efforts against the climate crisis. It took CBS’s anchor Lindsey Reiser just six seconds to open her piece with the words “The wildfires in California are the latest in a string of natural disasters made worse by climate change.”

Of course, TV needs pictures to tell the story, and brave photographers have provided stunning images of the LA fires. But it’s an editorial choice what narration is paired with such images, and again, it doesn’t take long to make the climate connection. A 30-second weather segment on ABC’s Good Morning America showed harrowing video of the Palisades fire while meteorologist Somara Theodore told viewers, “As the climate is changing, we are seeing that these wildfires are becoming more extreme.” The rise in global temperatures, she added, has meant that “41% more land [has burned] as a result”.

One of the most distressing fails has been the way too many news outlets took statements by Trump, Elon Musk and other known peddlers of disinformation at face value and even began framing their coverage of the fires accordingly. After Trump and Musk blasted false claims last week about how California environmental and DEI policies were impeding a rapid response to the fires, reports by leading news organizations began echoing those questions about whether local and state officials were properly prepared for this disaster. Again, exceptions to the rule show how easy it would have been for those outlets to identify and debunk such disinformation instead. Some of the best work here was done by California outlets, including the public radio stations KQED and LAist . An added bonus of such debunking? It gains the public’s trust in the news outlet, which in turn can build the audience and revenues that independent journalism desperately needs going forward.

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https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/jan/16/climate-crisis-la-california-wildfires