Maui Fires Show Climate Change’s Ugly Reach
The deadly infernos remind us that no place on Earth will be untouched by global warming.
The aftermath of a devastating fire in the historic Maui town of Lahaina.
Photographer: Patrick T. Fallon/AFP/Getty Images
Bloomberg Businessweek and Bloomberg Green published a cool infographic a few weeks ago showing how many billion-dollar climate disasters had struck each US state and territory since 1980. Of the 52 locales in the graphic, only one had avoided any such catastrophe for the past 30 years: Hawaii.
It was enough to make you daydream about riding out the climate emergency in an untouched tropical paradise. But that was an illusion, one the deadly wildfires tearing through Maui this week have shattered. It’s the latest of many reminders in this year of record-breaking heat that no place on Earth will be untouched by an increasingly chaotic global climate.