The media needs to show how the climate crisis is fueling the LA wildfires

The authors critique the media's failure to link the Los Angeles mega-fires to the climate crisis, noting that coverage often ignores scientific links, repeats disinformation, or focuses on political disputes rather than the role of fossil fuel companies. While citing a few positive examples from outlets like Time and the Los Angeles Times, the piece asserts that accurate climate reporting is an essential solution to generate the public pressure needed for government action.

• Much of the news media has failed to accurately represent how the climate crisis drives increasingly frequent and severe extreme weather in its coverage of the Los Angeles fires.
• Media coverage of the fires has frequently ignored the scientific link to a hotter planet, framed the events as political disputes involving President-elect Donald Trump and California officials, and failed to name fossil fuel companies like ExxonMobil and Chevron as contributors to the disaster.
• Some news organizations repeated disinformation from figures such as Donald Trump and Elon Musk, who claimed that California's environmental and DEI policies hindered the fire response.
• The Los Angeles fires are described as mega-fires that have burned an area larger than the city of San Francisco and are predicted by Governor Gavin Newsom to be the costliest disaster in US history.

APA

Pope, M. H. A. K. (2025). The media needs to show how the climate crisis is fueling the LA wildfires. Covering Climate Now. https://coveringclimatenow.org/from-us-story/the-media-needs-to-show-how-the-climate-crisis-is-fueling-the-la-wildfires/

Chicago

Pope, Mark Hertsgaard and Kyle. The media needs to show how the climate crisis is fueling the LA wildfires. Covering Climate Now, 2025. https://coveringclimatenow.org/from-us-story/the-media-needs-to-show-how-the-climate-crisis-is-fueling-the-la-wildfires/.

Wikipedia

{{cite press release |last1=Pope |first1=Mark Hertsgaard and Kyle |title=The media needs to show how the climate crisis is fueling the LA wildfires |publisher=Covering Climate Now |date=6 March 2025 |url=https://coveringclimatenow.org/from-us-story/the-media-needs-to-show-how-the-climate-crisis-is-fueling-the-la-wildfires/ |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@misc{pope2025media, author = {Pope, Mark Hertsgaard and Kyle}, title = {{The media needs to show how the climate crisis is fueling the LA wildfires}}, publisher = {Covering Climate Now}, year = {2025}, month = mar, url = {https://coveringclimatenow.org/from-us-story/the-media-needs-to-show-how-the-climate-crisis-is-fueling-the-la-wildfires/}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }