Why climate experts are criticizing a Hawaii headline from ABC News

As part of its reporting on the devastating wildfires in Hawaii, ABC News published an article Tuesday with the headline “Why climate change can’t be blamed for the Maui wildfires.”

That headline, which has now been edited to add a hedging “entirely” after “blamed,” topped a story pointing out the lack of attribution studies tying climate change to the wildfires.

Reporter Emily Atkin, who runs the climate crisis-focused newsletter Heated, went straight to the article’s sources to ask if the headline phrasing accurately reflected their comments. It didn’t.

“Climate change absolutely can be partially blamed for the severity of the Maui disaster because climate change worsens wildfires, and climate change plays a role in literally all weather events,” Atkin said. “We just don’t yet know how much blame, because we don’t yet have attribution studies that can tell us that sort of thing.”