“The Los Angeles fires represent a seminal moment for the climate crisis – and for journalism.” So write Covering Climate Now co-founders Mark Hertsgaard and Kyle Pope in a column published this morning in the Guardian and The Nation (and available for all CCNow partners to republish). There has been some climate-savvy reporting about the fires, Hertsgaard and Pope add, but 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.”
CCNow has pulled together an abundance of resources and analysis to help our fellow journalists make the climate connection to these fires — and also to future disasters, which will get worse, science tells us, until humanity stops burning oil, gas, and coal.
On Tuesday, some 250 journalists from around the world attended a CCNow press briefing, “How the LA Wildfires Are Fueled by Climate Change,” where head of ABC News Climate Unit Matthew Glasser described how “we send out a daily climate connections email [to all ABC journalists] where we put in very simple language — bullet points — making those connections between that extreme weather event and what the science says about climate change.” One key to making such guidance effective, Glasser added, is to include links and citations so newsroom colleagues can check the original sources. Another key: prepare the guidance well in advance, “not wait until you need it.”
Kaitlyn Trudeau, a scientist with the nonprofit Climate Central, summarized how climate change “is making these fires much more dangerous than they would be if the climate was not warming.” But journalists should not say, she added, that climate change “causes” such fires. Instead, climate attribution science enables us to say that climate change “drives” or “makes more likely” a given extreme weather event. (The scientists at the nonprofit World Weather Attribution are preparing an analysis of the LA fires and hope to deliver their results in the next two weeks.)
Responding to a question about how to engage Gen-Z audiences in climate coverage, Rachael Myrow, a senior editor at KQED, advised: “People like to see themselves reflected in the news they consume. Include their voices, include their faces… and they will see that you are talking to them as well as their elders.”
In addition, Hertsgaard and Pope’s column draws lessons from some of the good coverage of the fires — by the Los Angeles Times, ABC News, CBS News, and TIME — to illustrate how easy it is to do better. The LA fires are such a dramatic, consequential story it’s no surprise that news organizations around the world are playing it big. But these fires are also yet another sign that our planetary house is on fire. “When a house is on fire, by all means let journalism show us the flames,” Hertsgaard and Pope write. “But tell us why the house is burning, too.”
From Us
Press Briefing: The LA Wildfires. This week, CCNow hosted a one-hour briefing on how climate change is fueling more intense, fast-growing fires and examining climate change’s role in the risk factors that led to southern California’s ongoing blazes. Panelists including Matthew Glasser of ABC News’s Climate Unit, Rachael Myrow of KQED, and Kaitlyn Trudeau of Climate Central. Watch a recording of the briefing.
Power & Progress newsletter. Introducing our new biweekly newsletter unpacking the politics of the renewable energy transition. Elections around the world last year resulted overwhelmingly in incumbents being ousted and a right-ward political shift. What impact will new leaders have on climate action? And, more broadly, how is power propeling or impeding climate progress? Our first edition digs into the potential impacts of emissions reductions goals set by the outgoing Biden administration. Sign up to receive Power & Progress every other Tuesday.
Noteworthy Stories
Wartime emissions. The war in Gaza has carried with it an “immense” carbon footprint, with emissions generated by the first two months of the war alone exceeding the combined emissions of more than 20 climate-vulnerable nations, according to new research. The vast majority of war-linked emissions were due to Israel’s aerial bombardment and ground invasion of Gaza, as well as US cargo planes delivering war supplies to Israel. By Nina Lakhani for the Guardian…
Limit break. Last year was the first in which global average temperatures exceeded 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, the aspirational target world leaders set in 2015 to avoid the worst consequences of climate change, according to the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service. The Climate Question podcast considers the significance and implications of this breach. For the BBC World Service…
Haaland’s legacy. Outgoing interior secretary Deb Haaland was the first Native American to serve in a president’s cabinet. In a Q&A with Grist, Haaland considers the work she leaves behind, including bolstering ties with tribal leaders, supporting tribes’ efforts to adapt to climate change, and the controversial Willow Project, which opened swaths of Alaskan tundra to new oil drilling. By Anita Hofschneider for Grist…
Rejections from on high. The Supreme Court this week denied oil companies’ request to review an earlier decision by the Hawaiʻi Supreme Court which would allow a so-called “climate deception lawsuit” filed against the companies by the City and County of Honolulu to proceed. The Supreme Court’s decision likely puts the Honolulu case on-track to become the first such suit to reach a jury trial, with significant implications for similar active cases elsewhere in the US. By Emily Sanders for ExxonKnews…
Lost and found: Irony. As Donald Trump muses about the US buying or otherwise seizing control of Greenland and the Panama Canal, he has touted their strategic significance. But it seems lost on the once and future president that a major reason for the shifting strategic landscape is climate change, which he frequently denies exists. By Oliver Milman for the Guardian…
Fires in the Spotlight
Here’s a selection of impressive and inspiring coverage of the LA fires, since they broke out last week:
- We Will All Be Paying For LA’s Wildfires – By Lois Parshley for The Lever…
- California Infernos in January? Here’s Why Wildfire Season Keeps Getting Longer and More Devastating – By Julie Cart for CalMatters…
- Many in Pacific Palisades Were Not Wealthy. After Fire, Can They Rebuild? – By Rachael Myrow for KQED…
- Climate Scientists Warn of Growing Whiplash Effect on Weather Patterns – By Ezra David Romero for KQED…
- How the Devastating Los Angeles Fires Could Deepen California’s Home Insurance Crisis – By Laurence Darmiento for the Los Angeles Times…
- Home Cameras Offer ‘Horror Movie Moments’—and Essential Help—Amidst LA Fires – By Katharine Gammon for Atmos…
- How Two Words from a 24-Year-Old Pasadena Climate Specialist Saved Hundreds of Lives – By Phil Hopkins for Local News Pasadena…
- On the Front Lines of the Los Angeles Fires – Wally Skalij, as told to Feven Merid, for Columbia Journalism Review…
Also, check Carbon Brief’s extensive review of how media outlets around the world have responded to the fires, from the causes of the fires to the political fights and disinformation they’ve sparked.
And new research from the University of California Los Angeles digs into “hydroclimate whiplash” — “rapid swings between intensely wet and dangerously dry weather” — which it describes as “the key climate connection” for increasing incidents of flooding, drought, and wildfires in the state.
Resources, Etc.
Billion-dollar disasters. In the US in 2024, there were 27 weather and climate disasters that caused at least $1 billion in damage, according to updated data from NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information. It was among the most active years in history for such disasters, second only to 2023, which saw 28 billion-dollar events. Check out the report.
AP photographers ‘in their own words.’ Eleven Associated Press photographers from across the world — Mexico, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, and more — discuss their work documenting the human dimensions of another record year for climate change.
Uproot resources. The Uproot Project is launching a resource library, as “a space [to] share resources for environmental journalists from underrepresented communities, requested and created by [their] peers.” Request or pitch a resource.
Jobs, Etc.
Floodlight is hiring a director of audience and an investigative reporter (both remote; applications due January 19). The New Republic is hiring a class politics reporter (remote). ProPublica is hiring a climate reporter (multiple locations). Hearst Connecticut Media Group is hiring a meteorologist (Hartford, Conn.). The Philadelphia Inquirer is hiring a health reporter. Nevada Public Radio is hiring an Indigenous affairs producer & reporter (Las Vegas, Nev.). The Detroit News is hiring an auto industry reporter (Detroit, Mich.).
Mongabay is hiring for its Y. Eva Tan conservation reporting fellowship, with a dozen fellowships up for grabs, six working in English and six in Spanish (remote; applications due January 19). Grist is hiring for its annual fellowship program, with positions open for climate news, climate solutions, and Indigenous affairs (multiple locations; applications due January 21).
Report for America is accepting applications for its 2025–2026 cohort. Corps members will be placed in more than 100 newsrooms, and the environment is among the top beats for which the program is hiring. Applications are due February 3. Learn more and apply.
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