"It's the same world, but everything is new"
We should be freaking out more about the fires on Maui.
This week’s soundtrack: Marissa Nadler - “Was It A Dream”
According to reports, nearly 100 people have died in the wildfires on the island of Maui that raged last week. It’s the deadliest fire event in more than a century in the United States and it has been the main story in much legacy media recently.
From a very Journalism 101-level perspective, this makes sense. On TV especially, fires make for interesting video, a compelling narrative and there is a cavalcade of people willing to talk about it (emergency response officials, residents, etc.). From an online and print perspective, it is ripe for statistics, lists, human interest stories and seemingly a million other angles by which to explore.
If you remember, the immediate post-Chris Licht era at CNN was inaugurated by an all-staff phone call noting that CNN would be down-the-middle in its reporting and cover news events like the Canadian fires of June. This, of course, had an implication that the fires themselves are not political or do not have political angles that would upset either right or left. While this is increasingly so (I shit you not, Anthony Weiner and Curtis Sliwa agree on climate change on their “The Left Versus The Right” radio show. Yes, this is a thing that exists.), it’s fairly naïve to think that the actual story of climate change is not something that will upset many.
Over at the Discourse Blog, Jack Mirkinson notes that many people continue to call wildfires “natural disasters” – he cited the Hawai’i governor’s tweet on this exact wording, among other places. – because they are, in fact, caused by human action. Mirkinson enumerates the ways humans have exacerbated this particular disaster, from population growth to poor infrastructure to regular old climate change.
What I would add is that climate change deniers largely used obfuscating language in years past to misdirect and misinform the public. The fact that I use the term “climate change” itself is a testament to this; “global warming” was the preferred choice of language before “climate change” became de rigeur.
What shocks me about wildfire coverage is that it isn’t making more people freak out. The climate change disaster movies of the past were very much about huge, discreet events, while most of the actual climate crisis is more gradual. I’d think that everyone would be acting like we live in that terrible Roland Emmerich movie. Instead, everyone is kind of going about their days as a former wetland burns because of the damage we’ve done to the planet.
In 2017, I went camping in Idaho with some friends and we had to change our plans because of wildfires in the American West that made our original plans moot. We eventually decided on camping near the Seven Devils Mountains, where we we able to visit a USDA fire spotting station. I spoke to the fire spotters and they noted that the wildfire season had grown in the time they were in that job.
A year later, the town of Paradise, California, was burnt to the ground. Since then, the entire state of California – the most populous state in these United States! – seemingly is on fire all the time. As mentioned above, smoke from Canadian fires made the daytime sky orange in every major American city easy of Minneapolis. 2012 is now and we’re just kinda OK with it.
For what it’s worth, I think the media coverage has been mostly good and increasingly full of context. Of the many stories I’ve read about the fires, at least a third have mentioned climate in them and social media is even more strident about the climate aspect of the fires. “Natural disaster” is becoming less and less the ways we describe these events. That’s a good thing.
If only people would pay attention and do something, we’d really be in business.
Stop Me If You’ve Heard This Before…
Were you thinking “damn, I miss Ross’ voice on a podcast?” If so… buddy, have I got good news for you. Over at the ranch, my colleague Anastasia Obis and I talked about the Biden administration’s new cyber workforce strategy on our CyberCast podcast. Check it out here.
Lulu Update
My new job means a slightly different schedule for Lulu and I, with different rhythms than my previous gig and very different rhythms from when I was unemployed. This means days like today – when I was in virtual meetings for several hours straight – are particularly annoying for my pyscho dog.
What I’m saying is this: the mute button is key on virtual meetings when your dog craves attention and is going bonkers with the squeaky spiky ball.
A Recommendation: Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
I bake cookies most weeks for my softball team and yesterday, I baked oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. I’m not a hater of raisin cookies like many, but I 100% prefer an oatmeal chocolate chip cookie to one with raisins. If you haven’t baked them lately, go for it. Here’s a good recipe.