Officials, media blame ‘climate crisis’ for wildfires caused by arson

Greek officials and media operatives are blaming “climate change” for wildfires in Greece despite admitting that the majority of the fires were caused by arson or criminal negligence.

News media have been reporting on the wildfires affecting the Rhodes, Corfu and Evia islands for over a week with escalating climate alarmism.

“Rhodes wildfires are climate wake-up call, says UK minister,” reported The Guardian last week.

“Greece wildfires: climate crisis will ‘manifest itself everywhere with greater disasters’, says Greek PM – as it happened,” read another headline.

“Deadly global heatwaves undeniably result of climate crisis, scientists show,” The Guardian reported Tuesday.

But Greece Climate Crisis and Civil Protection Minister Vassilis Kikilias said Friday that most of the 667 fires could have been prevented since they were caused by “human hand”.

“During this time 667 fires erupted, that is more than 60 fires a day, almost all over the country. Unfortunately, the majority were ignited by human hand, either by criminal negligence or intent,” said Kikilias.

Despite the admission, the climate official nevertheless tried to claim “climate change” was the real culprit because weather conditions helped the fires spread.

“The difference with other years were [sic] the weather conditions. Climate change, which yielded a historic and unprecedented heatwave, is here. There were very few days where the extreme weather was not combined with strong winds.”

“Climate change” has become the go-to explanation for wildfires across the globe, no matter the cause. A wildfire in California last year was described by officials as being “a direct result of what is climate change” despite last month’s arrest of the suspected arsonist.

An analysis by Frontline News found that every article published by legacy news corporations on last month’s wildfires in Canada uses the phrase “climate crisis,” “climate change,” or both, echoing figures like Joe Biden, Canada Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, and others.

But experts are pointing out irreconcilable flaws with the narrative.

The Danish government’s Environmental Assessment Institute Director Bjørn Lomborg wrote in 2021 that since wildfires started being recorded in 1900, the worldwide acreage burned by wildfires each year is decreasing, despite the climb in carbon emissions. Even assuming that global warming is causing more fires, they are still consuming less land than ever due to expanding populations and economic development.

According to Canada’s own Canadian National Fire Database (CNFDB), the number of wildfires has been steadily declining since 1990, the first year of record. 

Author and environmentalist Jim Steele, who previously served as San Francisco State University’s Sierra Nevada Field Campus director, slammed the media’s “climate change” narrative.

“I do not feel the media is educating us about the science that affects fires. They're just trying to push a catastrophe narrative that's been going on way too long,” Steele told Cowboy State Daily. 

Steele says that fires were even more extensive in the 17th and 18th centuries when the world’s climate was cooler, pouring cold water on theories that Canada’s wildfires are caused by global warming.

Instead, Steele attributes the ferocious fires to Pacific Decadal Oscillation, a long-term temperature fluctuation of the Pacific Ocean over 20–30-year periods. During negative phases of this natural phenomenon, many parts of the US see drier climates than usual, which directly correlates to forest fires.

Another contributor to the wildfires, adds Steele, is, ironically, fire suppression. Forest management tactics allow dead trees, grasses and fuels to accumulate, which causes fires to burn hotter and longer.

“I don't think there's enough evidence whatsoever to say a CO2 effect has emerged from the data,” Steele said. 

University of Washington Atmospheric Sciences Professor Cliff Mass also notes that forest fires in Canada are on the decline. The largest fires occurred in the 1980s, and Mass says May is primetime for forest fires.

“There is no evidence that such a pattern is the result of climate change,” wrote Mass on his blog.