LA Times article about climate change and wildfires draws criticism

An article in the Los Angeles Times about climate change and wildfires that we first wrote about on October 20 is drawing criticism. Reporter Paige St. John cherry-picked quotes from several fire or climate experts that were misleading in order to advance the notion that climate change is not affecting fires, nor will it affect them in the near future in a significant way. We pointed out that Ms. St. John’s article would have been more appropriate on the Times’ Opinion page rather than the News section.

Mother Jones took issue with some of the misleading statements in the Times article:

…The Times piece is very strange. It starts by quoting Roger Pielke, the go-to guy for any reporter who wants a skeptical take on climate change. But even Pielke doesn’t actually say climate is unrelated to increased wildfire activity. Next up is a quote from a guy concerned with fire risk who naturally thinks we should focus on making homes safer, but doesn’t comment on climate science one way or the other. Next comes a scientist who has “concluded that global warming has indeed shown itself in California.” Then a Forest Service ecologist who says “California has had an average of 18 additional days per year that are conducive to fire.”

Next comes a UCI team who reported that climate change will increase fires in Southern California by 64 percent over the next few decades. But instead of simply reporting that, the piece acknowledges only that fires will “increase,” and then casts doubt on the result by noting that the UCI model has error bars which indicate that the increase could be between 12 percent and 140 percent. Then a prediction from a “UC Merced expert” who speculated about “a possible decrease of such fires as dry conditions slow vegetation growth.” Finally a National Park Service climate change scientist is quoted as saying “We are living right now with a legacy of unnatural fire suppression of approximately a century.” That’s true enough. Elsewhere, however, that same scientist has also said, “climate has dominated all factors in controlling the extent of wildfire in Western U.S. forests in the 20th century.”

In other words, virtually everyone quoted in this article either (a) says nothing about climate change or (b) says climate change is an important factor in the rise of wildfires in California and the West. And yet, somehow all of this is written in a way that makes it sound as if climate change has nothing to do with wildfires, and it’s topped by a headline that says in no uncertain terms, “Gov. Brown’s link between climate change and wildfires is unsupported, fire experts say.”

Very peculiar.

And from MediaMatters.org:

The Los Angeles Times reported that “scientists who study climate change and fire behavior” dispute California Gov. Jerry Brown’s comments describing a link between the state’s recent wildfires and climate change. However, numerous scientists and major scientific reports have detailed the connection that global warming has to both recent and future wildfires in the Southwest, including the 2014 National Climate Assessment, which stated that climate change has already “increased wildfires” in the Southwest region and could lead to “up to 74% more fires in California.” Moreover, the experts cited by the Times do not contradict Brown’s statements, and the only one who directly criticized Brown was Roger Pielke; it is unclear from the article whether it quoted Roger Pielke Sr. or Roger Pielke Jr., but both father and son have made dubious climate-related claims in the past that were debunked by climate scientists…

(UPDATE October 24, 2015)

Today the LA Times published an article titled, Readers React: Don’t dismiss the link between wildfires and climate change, scientists say, which includes portions of three letters from experts that disagree with the implied premise in the original article.

Typos, let us know HERE, and specify which article. Please read the commenting rules before you post a comment.

Author: Bill Gabbert

After working full time in wildland fire for 33 years, he continues to learn, and strives to be a Student of Fire.

2 thoughts on “LA Times article about climate change and wildfires draws criticism”

  1. I’ve been tracking the “climate change versus fuel loading via fire suppression” causation discussion for a while, since I’m interested in, and work on, both topics. There’s no way either of the two can be ignored or minimized, and it’s unfortunate to see people making it an either/or issue, but people often have that tendency for whatever reason.

    In terms of what’s driving the situation *now*, I side fairly strongly with the fuel loading arguments, based on my knowledge of how forest demography and structure has changed in CA since caucasian settlement. But moving into the future it’s going to be more the combined effects of that, plus climatic changes (an a number of different forms of the latter), unless we do something about the issue.

    A more general comment is that I am highly appreciative of the work you are doing here, it’s really good. If and when I get the time I will be going through your archives as much as I can.

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