{"id":20459,"date":"2020-09-10T15:24:38","date_gmt":"2020-09-10T20:24:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/climate411\/?p=20459"},"modified":"2020-09-10T15:25:39","modified_gmt":"2020-09-10T20:25:39","slug":"is-the-media-making-the-connection-between-wildfires-and-climate-change","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/climate411\/2020\/09\/10\/is-the-media-making-the-connection-between-wildfires-and-climate-change\/","title":{"rendered":"Is the media making the connection between wildfires and climate change?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft \" src=\"https:\/\/upload.wikimedia.org\/wikipedia\/commons\/thumb\/3\/32\/Fire-Forest.jpg\/800px-Fire-Forest.jpg\" width=\"379\" height=\"252\" \/>With entire towns in Oregon and Washington razed,\u00a0ash raining down on Denver and the skies over San Francisco an apocalyptic orange, the unprecedented wildfire season in the Western U.S. is getting plenty of coverage. But much of it seems to ignore a central fact: <strong>This devastation &#8212; more frequent, bigger wildfires, and a longer fire season &#8212; is largely a consequence of climate pollution produced by burning fossil fuels<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>The way it works is easy to understand. Rising temperatures, a key component of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.edf.org\/climate\/why-you-need-care-about-climate-change-now\">climate change<\/a>, evaporate more moisture from the ground, drying out the soil and making vegetation more flammable. At the same time, winter snow-packs are melting about a month earlier, meaning that the forests are drier for longer periods of time. Meanwhile, shifting meteorological patterns can drive rain away from wildfire-prone regions, a phenomenon scientists previously discovered in California and have <a href=\"https:\/\/www.edf.org\/blog\/2014\/10\/02\/how-scientists-linked-california-drought-climate-change\">linked<\/a> in certain cases to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.edf.org\/climate\/9-ways-we-know-humans-triggered-climate-change\">human-made climate change<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Even before this year\u2019s devastating season, we\u2019ve seen a dramatic increase in the damage caused by wildfires. The average wildfire season in the West is three and a half months longer than it was a few decades back, and the number of annual large fires has tripled \u2014 burning six times as many acres.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Despite this, we have repeatedly seen coverage of the fires that lacks a prominent discussion of the cause of these worsening fires. Even some of the <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ClimateHuman\/status\/1303465415151030272\">best<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.npr.org\/2020\/09\/08\/910578980\/fast-moving-wildfire-destroys-80-of-small-town-in-eastern-washington-state\">news<\/a> organizations in the U.S. are missing a key piece of this story in some of their articles.<\/p>\n<p>It is like talking about the increased spread of COVID while ignoring the reason it is spreading.<\/p>\n<p>The increase in wildfires is also part of a larger trend of costly climate impacts. Billion-dollar weather disasters fueled by climate change are becoming more frequent and more devastating to state and local economies, according to a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.edf.org\/media\/new-report-economic-cost-climate-change-strains-us-economy\">report<\/a> by Datu Research commissioned by Environmental Defense Fund.<\/p>\n<p>We urge all outlets to explain these facts to their readers, viewers and listeners.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>With entire towns in Oregon and Washington razed,\u00a0ash raining down on Denver and the skies over San Francisco an apocalyptic orange, the unprecedented wildfire season in the Western U.S. is getting plenty of coverage. But much of it seems to ignore a central fact: This devastation &#8212; more frequent, bigger wildfires, and a longer fire &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-20459","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Is the media making the connection between wildfires and climate change? - Climate 411<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/climate411\/2020\/09\/10\/is-the-media-making-the-connection-between-wildfires-and-climate-change\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Is the media making the connection between wildfires and climate change? - Climate 411\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"With entire towns in Oregon and Washington razed,\u00a0ash raining down on Denver and the skies over San Francisco an apocalyptic orange, the unprecedented wildfire season in the Western U.S. is getting plenty of coverage. But much of it seems to ignore a central fact: This devastation &#8212; more frequent, bigger wildfires, and a longer fire ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/climate411\/2020\/09\/10\/is-the-media-making-the-connection-between-wildfires-and-climate-change\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Climate 411\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-09-10T20:24:38+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-09-10T20:25:39+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/upload.wikimedia.org\/wikipedia\/commons\/thumb\/3\/32\/Fire-Forest.jpg\/800px-Fire-Forest.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Keith Gaby\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Keith Gaby\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.edf.org\\\/climate411\\\/2020\\\/09\\\/10\\\/is-the-media-making-the-connection-between-wildfires-and-climate-change\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.edf.org\\\/climate411\\\/2020\\\/09\\\/10\\\/is-the-media-making-the-connection-between-wildfires-and-climate-change\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Keith Gaby\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.edf.org\\\/climate411\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/32ae70f0fe4129fdce6bf1b271a1f487\"},\"headline\":\"Is the media making the connection between wildfires and climate change?\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-09-10T20:24:38+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-09-10T20:25:39+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.edf.org\\\/climate411\\\/2020\\\/09\\\/10\\\/is-the-media-making-the-connection-between-wildfires-and-climate-change\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":342,\"commentCount\":1,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.edf.org\\\/climate411\\\/2020\\\/09\\\/10\\\/is-the-media-making-the-connection-between-wildfires-and-climate-change\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/upload.wikimedia.org\\\/wikipedia\\\/commons\\\/thumb\\\/3\\\/32\\\/Fire-Forest.jpg\\\/800px-Fire-Forest.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"News\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.edf.org\\\/climate411\\\/2020\\\/09\\\/10\\\/is-the-media-making-the-connection-between-wildfires-and-climate-change\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.edf.org\\\/climate411\\\/2020\\\/09\\\/10\\\/is-the-media-making-the-connection-between-wildfires-and-climate-change\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.edf.org\\\/climate411\\\/2020\\\/09\\\/10\\\/is-the-media-making-the-connection-between-wildfires-and-climate-change\\\/\",\"name\":\"Is the media making the connection between wildfires and climate change? 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