{"id":5220,"date":"2023-08-29T12:20:47","date_gmt":"2023-08-29T17:20:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nakedpolitics.net\/?p=5220"},"modified":"2023-08-29T12:20:48","modified_gmt":"2023-08-29T17:20:48","slug":"flashback-hawaii-wildfires-caused-by-climate-change-media-said-before-we-learned-the-real-cause","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nakedpolitics.net\/?p=5220","title":{"rendered":"FLASHBACK: Hawaii Wildfires Caused by Climate Change, Media Said\u2014Before We Learned the Real Cause"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe class=\"zeen-lazy-load-base zeen-lazy-load\" title=\"Maui Fires Climate Change_082323_V2\" width=\"1200\" height=\"675\" src=\"about:blank\" data-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/cNXsk2KVRkY?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><noscript><iframe title=\"Maui Fires Climate Change_082323_V2\" width=\"1200\" height=\"675\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/cNXsk2KVRkY?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/noscript>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Videos and firsthand accounts have made it increasingly clear that official failures enabled wildfires to incinerate the Hawaiian island of Maui earlier this month, leaving more than 100 people dead and about 1,000 missing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Downed&nbsp;power lines&nbsp;from a utility company that failed to turn off the power&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/climate-environment\/2023\/08\/15\/maui-fires-power-line-cause\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">ignited<\/a>&nbsp;the fire, and Maui\u2019s unqualified disaster chief&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/news\/us-news\/mauis-top-emergency-official-sound-sirens-fires-approached-rcna100538\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">chose not to sound&nbsp;<\/a>the warning sirens. But before much of anything had been&nbsp;established, Democratic politicians and journalists filled the void with faux-certainty about the role of climate change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2023\/08\/10\/climate\/hawaii-fires-climate-change.html#:~:text=Degraded%20forests%20and%20changing%20weather,years%2C%20according%20to%20recent%20research\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><em>New York Times<\/em><\/a>: &#8220;How Climate Change Turned Lush Hawaii Into a Tinderbox&#8221;:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p style=\"font-size:18px\">The explanation [for the wildfires] is as straightforward as it is sobering: As the planet heats up, no place is protected from disasters.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/ideas\/archive\/2023\/08\/hawaii-wildfires-warning-climate-change\/674974\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><em>Atlantic<\/em><\/a>: &#8220;Hawaii Is a Warning&#8221;:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p style=\"font-size:18px\">The world doesn\u2019t need more reminders that climate change is accelerating. But we\u2019re going to keep getting them.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/hawaii-wildfires-climate-change-92c0930be7c28ec9ac71392a83c87582\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Associated Press<\/a>: &#8220;Maui\u2019s Fire Became Deadly Fast. Climate Change, Flash Drought, Invasive Grass, And More Fueled It&#8221;:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p style=\"font-size:18px\">Experts say climate change is increasing the likelihood of these flash droughts as well as other extreme weather events like what\u2019s playing out on the island of Maui, where dozens of people have been killed and a historic tourist town was devastated.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/environment\/story\/2023-08-11\/how-did-climate-change-influence-catastrophic-hawaii-fire\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><em>Los Angeles Times<\/em><\/a>: &#8220;How a Perfect Storm of Climate And Weather Led to Catastrophic Maui Fire&#8221;:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>To a Californian, many of the factors that appear to have coalesced into a catastrophic fire that killed at least 36 people on Hawaii\u2019s Maui island are all too familiar. Yet for a tropical region that traditionally sees only mild wildfire activity, the chance interaction of terrain, weather, building development, vegetation, and the growing force multiplier of climate change have seemingly rewritten natural history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=5-bJJsGdWKE\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">MSNBC<\/a>: &#8220;Climate Change Fueling Maui&#8217;s Deadly Wildfires&#8221;:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p style=\"font-size:18px\">Basically, everything that we&#8217;re seeing is happening in a changed world.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/world\/us\/wind-fanned-fires-raze-parts-hawaii-forcing-evacuations-2023-08-09\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Reuters<\/a>: &#8220;Hawaii Wildfires Kill 36 as &#8216;Apocalypse&#8217; Hits Maui Island Resort City&#8221;:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p style=\"font-size:18px\">Human-caused climate change, driven by fossil fuel use, is increasing the frequency and intensity of such extreme weather events, scientists say, having long warned that government officials must slash emissions to prevent climate catastrophe.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>As it turned out, Hawaii officials were, if anything, too focused on&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.wsj.com\/us-news\/wildfire-risk-maui-hawaiian-electric-7beed21e\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">green<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.staradvertiser.com\/2023\/01\/10\/hawaii-news\/hawaii-gov-josh-green-pledges-100m-to-fight-climate-change\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">initiatives<\/a>&nbsp;and not enough on&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.wsj.com\/us-news\/climate-environment\/maui-fire-invasive-grass-cf6dbca2\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">land management<\/a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.wsj.com\/us-news\/wildfire-risk-maui-hawaiian-electric-7beed21e\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">other forms<\/a>&nbsp;of wildfire prevention.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>ABC News&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ryanmaue\/status\/1691251330885562368\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">angered<\/a>&nbsp;climate activists by&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/abcnews.go.com\/US\/climate-change-blamed-maui-wildfires\/story?id=102255714\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">reporting<\/a>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p style=\"font-size:18px\">The origin of the fire has not yet been determined but it was likely a human-caused accident boosted by weather and environmental conditions, experts say.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p style=\"font-size:18px\">A study published in the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.publish.csiro.au\/wf\/Fulltext\/WF22155#R217\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">International Journal of Wildland Fire<\/a>&nbsp;last year found that human-caused ignition was associated with a large portion of fires in California between 1919 and 2016.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p style=\"font-size:18px\">The researchers also found that the fire spread more quickly because of drought and heat amplified by greenhouse gas emissions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p style=\"font-size:18px\">Lahaina has a similar fire danger as parts of central California, Swain said, and many tourists are not aware that the wildfire potential on the island is not rare.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Original Article: <a href=\"https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/media\/hawaii-wildfires-climate-change\/\">https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/media\/hawaii-wildfires-climate-change\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Videos and firsthand accounts have made it increasingly clear that official failures enabled wildfires to incinerate the Hawaiian island of Maui earlier this month, leaving more than 100 people dead and about 1,000 missing. Downed&nbsp;power lines&nbsp;from a utility company that failed to turn off the power&nbsp;ignited&nbsp;the fire, and Maui\u2019s unqualified disaster chief&nbsp;chose not to sound&nbsp;the warning sirens. But before much of anything had been&nbsp;established, Democratic politicians and journalists filled the void with faux-certainty about the role of climate change. New [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":85,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5220","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-propaganda"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nakedpolitics.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5220","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nakedpolitics.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nakedpolitics.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nakedpolitics.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/85"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nakedpolitics.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5220"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nakedpolitics.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5220\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5221,"href":"https:\/\/nakedpolitics.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5220\/revisions\/5221"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nakedpolitics.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5220"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nakedpolitics.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5220"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nakedpolitics.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5220"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}