West Milford fire among several wildfires burning in northern New Jersey
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Wildfires Burn on Both US Coasts
Above: A wildfire burns and spreads on a mountain in West Milford, NJ on Nov. 9, 2024. Image copyright: Kyle Mazza/Contributor/Anadolu via Getty Images
The Facts
Wildfires are raging on the East Coast and West Coast of the US, including 21K acres of land burned from the Mountain Fire in Ventura County, Calif., and 3K acres of land from the Jennings Creek Wildfire in Passaic County, New Jersey.
Alongside the Jennings Creek Fire, which is currently 10% contained, fires are also burning in Michigan, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Pennsylvania. There have been over 100 brush fires in New York City this month.
The Spin
Narrative A
This is the fault of climate change. Carbon emissions are leading to hotter and drier climates, leading to larger fires that release more carbon into the atmosphere. Not only are millions of acres of coastal land burning but toxic smoke is being emitted. Americans don't even have to read climate literature to see and smell the effects of climate change.
Narrative B
Climate change's role in wildfires is exaggerated, often at the expense of other crucial factors — including human-caused ignitions and poor forest management. This distortion stems from twisted criteria in academic publishing that favor politicized discourse over truth, leading false narratives about climate impacts to hinder the development of practical solutions.