I say embrace the villain role. "You think that's bad, huh? Just wait until I, The Left, make you use correct pronouns and acknowledge slavery is bad! BWAHAHA!"
"Angry barista," eh? Nice to know I can get a nice cup of joe with my facts on climate change.
But serially - what ABC (or any other "mainstream media" outlet) doesn't seem to get is that every time they carelessly publish nonsense like this they give the Fox crowd more reason to gloat, and the Fox followers more reason to doubt. The changes that followed only exacerbated the error by continuing to smear the left for its alleged "cancel culture."
Meanwhile over 100 people are dead, a gigantic chunk of Hawaii's ancient history & culture are wiped out, and the federal government keeps writing checks to fossil fuel extractors to keep up the good work. This isn't some extant, academic debate - it's about people dying in a blazing inferno.
Remember stories about Aztecs sacrificing human beings to their false gods? Remember the moral revulsion? Well guess what, folks - we haven't progressed much: here we are, sacrificing real people all around the world to the god of profit. Shame on us.
Aug 17, 2023·edited Aug 17, 2023Liked by Emily Atkin
Like you wrote, this kind of BS is to be expected from Fox and its chorus of science-denying, fact-challenged audience members. ABC should do better.
PS: I agree completely with Dr. Marvel, a huge factor in the fires was another human-related cause, which is the way we change the local ecology to suit OUR needs. Basically, we humans F up just about everything we touch, with zero thought about the consequences of what we are doing, or why.
As you've pointed out before: there's a straw dog on that straw dog. Not only is it reductionistic to say that climate change is the cause of a condition because it is just one of many important factors; the term "climate change" is itself a reification of the reasons behind the changing climate, with fossil fuel emissions being the major driving force behind the increase in atmospheric and oceanic greenhouse gases. Just as steroid use has enhanced the performance of many athletes, changing the records of many sports, there are many other factors in athletic performance that contribute to "record change" but the driving variable behind that change is steroid use.
Thanks for continuing to point out that not only does the individual event have a component attributable to "climate change" but that the changing climate itself is possible because of the changed atmospheric and oceanic conditions make that changing climate possible and are caused by the huge quantities of greenhouse gases that are directly attributable to fossil fuel emissions.
Climate change wouldn't be happening this time around if we weren't spewing enough fossil fuel emissions to change the earth's atmospheric and oceanic chemistry. Until everyone understands that link, we won't have the political and economic will to change things, and so thanks for continuing to rub people's noses in that.
You are building an enviable collection of badges of honor with your work. Remember you helped correct the poor reporting of ABC AND you now ARE the left! That’s huge! Besides... any time the criminal climate deniers blow hot air and point toward your reporting, think of it as a huge high-five. +5 bonus points!
The Lahaina fire was very similar to the Marshall/Superior fire outside of Boulder CO two years ago. Grass fire sweeps into town driven by extra-strong downslope winds (we call them Chinooks) after a prolonged period of drought and heat resulting in a firestorm. Possibly with ignition from electrical sparks.
None of these were completely unusual on their own, but the state climatologist did publish a graph showing that the combination of very low precip and very high temps in the preceding six months was "off the charts," compared to the century or more of observed weather. I.e. "climate change" done it. Some others tried to say, "Oh there have always been grass fires...."
We couldn't blame invasive grasses there, the native grasses were pretty crispy. But many recent fires in the Mountain West owe their fast starts to the spread of Eurasian cheatgrass through what were sage steppe or grassland ecosystems.
Superior wasn't as big a town and many folks were at work, and those at home had multiple routes to escape. Even though 1800 buildings burned down, there were only two fatalities.
A classic example of misinformation vs. disinformation perhaps? Given the general credibility of ABC, and kinda-sorta recognition they fucked up in spreading misinformation. But Fox/DS took that to spread disinformation- as they are generally expected to do, no surprise.
For those who might be interested, Andrew Dessler has written one of the best tutorial books on climate change. It’s entitled “Introduction to Modern Climate Change - Third Edition 2021.”
We are really going to get articles like this from now on won't we? We moved on from both sidesing the existence of climate change or its causes, to now every time a disaster happens, we will both sides whether or not climate change caused it, or just flat out say it didn't. When that clearly isn't the fucking point or good journalism to accurately explain the role of climate change and natural disasters in the first place.
I do agree with Dr. Marvel that the article itself is pretty nuanced, the headline is obviously shit, but why quote someone but then not ask whether or not they actually agree with how their quote is used as framing for whatever you want to use that quote for? That doesn't make sense to me.
It is really awesome though your critique got ABC to act, and I do hope those writers read this to understand what you are so clearly saying, and how to explain what is happening with climate change and natural disasters. Thank you for your anger and reporting here!
I say embrace the villain role. "You think that's bad, huh? Just wait until I, The Left, make you use correct pronouns and acknowledge slavery is bad! BWAHAHA!"
"Angry barista," eh? Nice to know I can get a nice cup of joe with my facts on climate change.
But serially - what ABC (or any other "mainstream media" outlet) doesn't seem to get is that every time they carelessly publish nonsense like this they give the Fox crowd more reason to gloat, and the Fox followers more reason to doubt. The changes that followed only exacerbated the error by continuing to smear the left for its alleged "cancel culture."
Meanwhile over 100 people are dead, a gigantic chunk of Hawaii's ancient history & culture are wiped out, and the federal government keeps writing checks to fossil fuel extractors to keep up the good work. This isn't some extant, academic debate - it's about people dying in a blazing inferno.
Remember stories about Aztecs sacrificing human beings to their false gods? Remember the moral revulsion? Well guess what, folks - we haven't progressed much: here we are, sacrificing real people all around the world to the god of profit. Shame on us.
Like you wrote, this kind of BS is to be expected from Fox and its chorus of science-denying, fact-challenged audience members. ABC should do better.
PS: I agree completely with Dr. Marvel, a huge factor in the fires was another human-related cause, which is the way we change the local ecology to suit OUR needs. Basically, we humans F up just about everything we touch, with zero thought about the consequences of what we are doing, or why.
As you've pointed out before: there's a straw dog on that straw dog. Not only is it reductionistic to say that climate change is the cause of a condition because it is just one of many important factors; the term "climate change" is itself a reification of the reasons behind the changing climate, with fossil fuel emissions being the major driving force behind the increase in atmospheric and oceanic greenhouse gases. Just as steroid use has enhanced the performance of many athletes, changing the records of many sports, there are many other factors in athletic performance that contribute to "record change" but the driving variable behind that change is steroid use.
Thanks for continuing to point out that not only does the individual event have a component attributable to "climate change" but that the changing climate itself is possible because of the changed atmospheric and oceanic conditions make that changing climate possible and are caused by the huge quantities of greenhouse gases that are directly attributable to fossil fuel emissions.
Climate change wouldn't be happening this time around if we weren't spewing enough fossil fuel emissions to change the earth's atmospheric and oceanic chemistry. Until everyone understands that link, we won't have the political and economic will to change things, and so thanks for continuing to rub people's noses in that.
You are building an enviable collection of badges of honor with your work. Remember you helped correct the poor reporting of ABC AND you now ARE the left! That’s huge! Besides... any time the criminal climate deniers blow hot air and point toward your reporting, think of it as a huge high-five. +5 bonus points!
The Lahaina fire was very similar to the Marshall/Superior fire outside of Boulder CO two years ago. Grass fire sweeps into town driven by extra-strong downslope winds (we call them Chinooks) after a prolonged period of drought and heat resulting in a firestorm. Possibly with ignition from electrical sparks.
None of these were completely unusual on their own, but the state climatologist did publish a graph showing that the combination of very low precip and very high temps in the preceding six months was "off the charts," compared to the century or more of observed weather. I.e. "climate change" done it. Some others tried to say, "Oh there have always been grass fires...."
We couldn't blame invasive grasses there, the native grasses were pretty crispy. But many recent fires in the Mountain West owe their fast starts to the spread of Eurasian cheatgrass through what were sage steppe or grassland ecosystems.
Superior wasn't as big a town and many folks were at work, and those at home had multiple routes to escape. Even though 1800 buildings burned down, there were only two fatalities.
A classic example of misinformation vs. disinformation perhaps? Given the general credibility of ABC, and kinda-sorta recognition they fucked up in spreading misinformation. But Fox/DS took that to spread disinformation- as they are generally expected to do, no surprise.
I’d also like a fuck-all-y’all latte please.
For those who might be interested, Andrew Dessler has written one of the best tutorial books on climate change. It’s entitled “Introduction to Modern Climate Change - Third Edition 2021.”
We are really going to get articles like this from now on won't we? We moved on from both sidesing the existence of climate change or its causes, to now every time a disaster happens, we will both sides whether or not climate change caused it, or just flat out say it didn't. When that clearly isn't the fucking point or good journalism to accurately explain the role of climate change and natural disasters in the first place.
I do agree with Dr. Marvel that the article itself is pretty nuanced, the headline is obviously shit, but why quote someone but then not ask whether or not they actually agree with how their quote is used as framing for whatever you want to use that quote for? That doesn't make sense to me.
It is really awesome though your critique got ABC to act, and I do hope those writers read this to understand what you are so clearly saying, and how to explain what is happening with climate change and natural disasters. Thank you for your anger and reporting here!
Thank you for what you do. They wouldn’t call you out if they weren’t afraid of you.
Yup, working on sea level rise here. Same problems. It's frustrating.