Tangle - The Hawaii wildfires.

Episode Date: August 22, 2023

The Hawaii fires. On August 8, a series of deadly wildfires erupted on the Hawaiian island of Maui. The death toll has reached 114, with 850 people still missing and 85% of impacted areas in Maui searched.The historic town of Lahaina has been completely destroyed, though several other areas of the island were also impacted. The fires are now the deadliest natural disaster in state history and the deadliest wildfires in modern U.S. history, surpassing 2018's Camp Fire in Paradise, California, which killed 85 people. An estimated $6 billion of damages has been done, with 3,000 homes and businesses destroyed or damaged.You can read today's podcast here, today’s Under the Radar story here, and today’s “Have a nice day” story here. You can also check out our latest YouTube video here.Today’s clickables: Quick hits (2:12), Today’s story (4:12), Left’s take (7:04), Right’s take (11:39), Isaac’s take (16:06), Listener question (21:04), Under the Radar (23:40), Numbers (24:28), Have a nice day (25:20)You can subscribe to Tangle by clicking here or drop something in our tip jar by clicking here.Our podcast is written by Isaac Saul and edited by Jon Lall. Music for the podcast was produced by Diet 75. Our newsletter is edited by Bailey Saul, Sean Brady, Ari Weitzman, and produced in conjunction with Tangle’s social media manager Magdalena Bokowa, who also created our logo.--- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/tanglenews/message Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Based on Charles Yu's award-winning book, Interior Chinatown follows the story of Willis Wu, a background character trapped in a police procedural who dreams about a world beyond Chinatown. When he inadvertently becomes a witness to a crime, Willis begins to unravel a criminal web, his family's buried history, and what it feels like to be in the spotlight. Interior Chinatown is streaming November 19th, only on Disney+. The flu remains a serious disease. Last season, over 102,000 influenza cases have been reported across Canada, which is Chinatown is streaming November 19th, only on Disney+. yourself from the flu. It's the first cell-based flu vaccine authorized in Canada for ages six months and older, and it may be available for free in your province. Side effects and allergic reactions can occur, and 100% protection is not guaranteed. Learn more at flucellvax.ca.

From executive producer Isaac Saul, this is Tangle. Good morning, good afternoon, and good evening, and welcome to the Tangle podcast, the place we get views from across the political spectrum, some independent thinking, and a little bit of my take. I'm your host, Isaac Saul, and on today's episode, we're going to be talking about the wildfires in Hawaii, what we know about them, what has happened so far, and what some people are blaming for how bad things have gone. Before we jump in, though, I need to give a quick correction for something that we had in yesterday's podcast. At the end of the podcast, in our numbers section, we mixed up a couple percentages. We said that based on the

numbers of some polling we had looked at, the drop in percentage points in the belief among Republicans was 20%, and that this was solid evidence. The support for the notion that the election was stolen from January 2021 had gone down by about 20 percentage points. And then there was sort of this parenthetical where we said 52 percent of 63 percent is 53 percent and 75 percent of 71 percent is 33 percent. Anyway, we messed it up. We had the numbers backwards. The change was still the same, but the explanation wasn't right. So apologies for that. Also, we had a little typo that I think I read wrong in the podcast where I mentioned mortgage rates being the highest they've been

since 2022, which obviously wouldn't be super newsworthy. That was a year ago. The real number was since 2002. So apologies for that as well. This is our 89th correction in Tangle's 213-week history and our first since July 31st. We track corrections and place them at the top of the newsletter and podcast in an effort to maximize transparency with our readers. All right, with that out of the way, we're going to jump in today with some quick hits. First up, former President Trump's bail was set at $200,000 in Georgia over his alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 election. Trump said he will voluntarily surrender to authorities in Georgia on Thursday. Number two, the Biden administration expanded temporary protected status for Ukrainians already in the U.S., allowing over 180,000 to live and work here legally until April of 2025. Number three, the FDA approved an RSV vaccine administered

during pregnancy to protect newborn babies from the virus. Number four, U.S. officials announced an additional $667 million in funding to expand rural broadband access in the U.S., with Alaska receiving just under $100 million of the new funds. Number five, firearm deaths among children in the U.S. rose 41.5 from 2018 to 2021, according to a new study. State of emergency has been declared in Hawaii as wildfires burn in one of the most beautiful places in the world. Flames and thick smoke are spreading across the island of Maui. The Coast Guard says it rescued people who jumped into the water to escape the fires. FEMA toured hard-hit Lahaina yesterday.

The wildfires have left at least 106 people dead across the state as victims have begun to be identified. Thousands were forced to evacuate and more than 2700 structures have been destroyed. It's still unclear what sparked the wildfire. President Biden has promised the full support of the federal government in Hawaii's recovery efforts. Well, there are mounting questions in Hawaii about how the Maui wildfire started in the first place and what caused them to spread so quickly. State officials are investigating. Residents say they're angry over the government's response. On August 8th, a series of deadly wildfires erupted on the Hawaiian islands of Maui.

The death toll has now reached 114, with 850 people still missing, and 85% of impacted areas in Maui searched. The historic town of Lahaina has been completely destroyed, though several other areas of the island were also impacted. The fires are now the deadliest natural disaster in state history and the deadliest wildfires in modern U.S. history, surpassing 2018's Camp Fire in Paradise, California, which killed 85 people. An estimated $6 billion of damages has been done, with 3,000 homes and businesses destroyed or damaged. The initial cause of the fire is still

being investigated, and officials are looking into whether downed power lines and decisions by Hawaii Electric, the state's primary power company, played a part. Security footage from the Maui Bird Conservation Center showed a flash in the woods around 10.47 p.m. on August 7th, which some believe was a tree falling on a power line during strong winds. I think that is when a tree is falling on a power line, Jennifer Pribble, a research coordinator at the organization, said on Instagram. The power goes out, our generator kicks in, the camera comes back online, and then the forest is on fire. Before the fires broke out, much of Hawaii was under a red flag warning for fires due to high winds caused by Hurricane Dora,

which was crossing the Pacific hundreds of miles south of Hawaii. Once the blaze began, the fire was fueled by a mix of dry land and atmospheric conditions that created so-called fire weather. Some, like Hawaii Governor Josh Green, a Democrat, said the intensity of the fire was due to a combination of global warming, drought, and wind from the superstorm off the coast that contributed to the fires. Some news reports have also suggested that the material of the roofs of many homes in Maui, being predominantly tar shingles and wood, may have made them more flammable. Dry brush around the homes was also identified as a major issue. The government response to the fires has also been the source of controversy.

President Biden, who visited Lahaina on Monday, was criticized for passing on a chance to comment about the fires. Khalil Emanuel, a state official in Hawaii, was blamed for not releasing water reserved for farmers to help fight the fires, while Maui's emergency chief, who has since resigned, was criticized for not activating a siren network to warn residents that the fires were spreading. Hawaiian Electric, which supplies 95% of the state's power, is now facing a class action lawsuit for keeping their power lines energized during high fire danger conditions. Today, we're going to take a look at some commentary from the left and the right about the fires and then my take. Today's podcast is sponsored by Arnold Ventures, a philanthropy dedicated to improving the lives of Americans through evidence-based policy solutions. As part of their efforts, they also support journalism

throughout the United States, including outlets like the Texas Tribune, ProPublica, and the Institute for Nonprofit News, among others. To learn more about their work, go to ArnoldVentures.org. That's ArnoldVentures.org. That's ArnoldVentures.org. Before we jump in, though, I do want to point out there is some broad agreement here on the left and the right, which we try to note when we can. Many commentators on both the left and the right agree that Hawaii officials should have notified residents about the fires sooner and been more organized in their response. Pundits also point to Maui's infrastructure as a significant contributor to the severity of the fires. Commentators on both sides also acknowledge the increased risk caused by the weather and brush, though they differ on the impact of climate change and how it impacted that risk.

So, with some common ground out of the way, we'll jump in with what the left is saying. Many on the left call out inadequate responses from government and climate change as the main causes behind the fire. Some argue that fossil fuel companies will once again avoid incurring any cost for problems they are causing. Others suggest that local government knew about the increased risk, but didn't make proper changes to mitigate it. In the New York Times, Dr. Kostas Sinolakis and George Kariannis asked why Hawaii didn't use its sophisticated tsunami warning system to alert residents. Independent investigations will tell us if this fire was preventable, but there's no question that had there been better planning and a timely warning, lives could have been spared. The warning

system with sirens was never fully activated because the administrator of the emergency system feared sending people toward the flames and said that looking back, his agency wouldn't do anything differently. We do not agree. If the agency doesn't do things differently in a similar disaster in the future, the outcome will be just as ghastly. So far, it appears that the Maui wildfire quickly got out of control in part because of a combination of high winds, dry vegetation, and firefighting resources spread thin across several simultaneous blazes, they said. Maui officials said text alerts were sent out, but it's unclear how many people received them. In Madi, Greece in 2018, a similar fire in similar conditions killed

104 people after there was no warning. With an alert system, those lives might not have been lost. It was another tragedy that could have been prevented. In the Los Angeles Times, Caroline Levine said some of the people responsible won't pay a cent. Rebuilding Maui and cleaning up the toxic remnants could cost 5.5 billion dollars. Who will pay for this? Most of us will, to varying degrees, but some of those most responsible, the fossil fuel companies that play a key role in such climate-related disasters, won't, Levine wrote. Extreme weather events take their highest economic toll on the communities directly hit. Maui's families, many of whom live paycheck to paycheck, have suddenly lost both jobs

and homes. They'll now struggle to meet their most basic needs. Taxpayers will cover the emergency shelter. Insurance companies will cover much of the property damage, and Hawaii Electric already faces a lawsuit. The fossil fuel companies, however, won't be paying a cent. That's despite the fact that their products created the climate conditions that made such fires more likely and more catastrophic. Less rain, higher temperatures, and other factors related to climate change have made Hawaii, like California, more vulnerable to wildfires, Levine said. As Naomi Oreskes and Eric M. Conway have shown, major oil, gas, and coal companies foresaw the catastrophic climate consequences of fossil fuel use. But instead of leading to an energy transition, they opted to sow public doubt about the link between fossil fuels and global warming and continued to invest in new mines and

oil fields. In counterbunch, Bill Wolf said opposition to government regulation and funding contributed to the fires. Hawaiian and federal government officials were fully aware of wildfire risks and the fact that current wildfire prevention and response programs were totally inadequate to protect public safety from increasingly frequent severe wildfires. Those same officials were fully aware of the science and management approach required to prevent wildfires and reduce wildfire risk, Wolf wrote, but officials consciously chose not to act due to political opposition to government regulatory mandates and funding. Of course, you will not read much about these underlying and deeply negligent causes in corporate media. Specifically, a July 2021

report shows officials acknowledging increased fire threats but rejecting any new regulations or revenues. This insanely irresponsible recommendation directly contradicted a major finding of the report that prevention efforts were ignored. The report states plainly that the department fails to address prevention as a mission or goal, a significant oversight, yet nothing was done to address this oversight. All right, that is it for what the left is saying, which brings us to what the right is saying. Many on the right downplay the role of climate change, instead pointing to the specifics of Hawaii's grasslands and the government's focus on renewable energy. Some argue Hawaii officials

mismanaged the response. Others blame focusing on green energy rather than funding existing power lines and the safety of the electric grid. In town hall, William D. Balgord said climate change is not one of the reasons for the deadly Maui fires. Maui's agriculture sector gave way to non-native population growth, real estate development, and the tourism industry, Balgord said. Land values skyrocketed, pricing agriculture out of the market. Land values skyrocketed, pricing agriculture out of the market. The former fields of Maui converted to home development close by the shore, with much of the once-cultivated upland slopes transitioned to open grassy fields. The abandoned native grasslands subsequently became colonized by invasive annual grasses, particularly guinea grass of African origins. The invasive grass grows

prolifically during Hawaii's wet winter and spring seasons, then typically it dies off by mid-summer and autumn, leaving head-high tinder standing in copious amounts with high fire potential. Grass fires are not unusual on the islands. The national media are once again attempting to connect the Maui wildfire with CO2-driven climate change as an outgrowth and corollary of man-made global warming. The reasoning goes as follows. A warmer climate, warmer than average seasonal temperatures, leads to a drier climate that in turn contributes to prolonged drought that generates more numerous and severe wildfires, Balgord said. But the underlying premise is false. A warmer global temperature would necessarily cause more evaporation of ocean surface water, leading to a wetter atmosphere, thus generating more precipitation that should tend to restrict

episodes of drought. Instead, the lush spring growth of the grasslands had died and dried out enough to form abundant tinder, ready to ignite into the wind-driven firestorms that happen on August 8th through 12th. Based on Charles Yu's award-winning book, Interior Chinatown follows the story of Willis Wu, a background character trapped in a police procedural who dreams about a world beyond Chinatown. When he inadvertently becomes a witness to a crime, Willis begins to unravel a criminal web,

his family's buried history, and what it feels like to be in the spotlight. Interior Chinatown is streaming November 19th, only on Disney+. The flu remains a serious disease. Last season, over 102,000 influenza cases have been reported across Canada, which is nearly double the historic average of 52,000 cases. What can you do this flu season? Talk to your pharmacist or doctor about getting a flu shot. Consider FluCellVax Quad and help protect yourself from the flu. It's the first cell-based flu vaccine authorized in Canada for ages 6 months and older,

and it may be available for free in your province. Side effects and allergic reactions can occur, and 100% protection is not guaranteed. Learn more at FluCellVax.ca. In the Daily Caller, Kristen Walker argued that Americans deserve to know what really caused the Maui wildfires. Democratic leaders began spouting climate change rhetoric before the fires had even run their course, with a unified message that climate change was to blame. Missing from most of these claims are facts based on reality, Walker said, and reality is there's so much more to the story. Maui was at great risk of wildfires because of its vast areas of unmanaged non-native grasslands from decades

of declining agriculture, combined with the island's ongoing severe drought. Further, wildfires have quadrupled in Hawaii in recent decades, and Hawaii is considered very fire-prone. Instead of pointing the finger at climate change, we ought to look at the real threat on the ground, a poorly managed, out-of-control landscape. Citizens would be better served by mitigating against potential damage from wildfires, hurricanes, and other natural disasters. In fact, according to FEMA, mitigation has a payback of six to seven dollars saved for every dollar invested. We need not let history repeat itself in Maui by focusing on climate change over improving fire resilience and land management practices. In the New York Post,

Betsy McAfee said the wildfires are proof that carbon zealotry can kill. While the media and Democrats point to climate change as the cause of the fires, the evidence is piling up that the opposite is true, she wrote. Zero carbon extremism diverted the island's main electrical producer, Hawaiian Electric, from insulating wires, clearing areas around vulnerable transmission sites, and taking other precautions to prevent wildfires that knew were likely to occur. It's the same story that is played out in Texas, Colorado, and California, where wildfires ignited by inadequately maintained electrical transmission systems, uninsulated wires, flimsy poles, where wildfires ignited by inadequately maintained electrical transmission systems, uninsulated wires, flimsy poles, out-of-control plant growth,

have also caused devastation. Hawaiian Electric's priorities, in hindsight lethal priorities, reflected the overwhelmingly democratic woke political culture of the state, she added. These kinds of events will continue to happen too, as long as they continue pursuing zero carbon by sacrificing safety and the production of a reliable electricity supply. Across the U.S., leftist politicians are pushing for net zero on a reckless timetable that sacrifices the safety of ordinary people. Wildfires are among the worst side effects. All right, that is it for what the left and the right are saying, which brings us to my take. So there are some days when my job is easy because I get to sit back and agree with everyone. There are also days when my job is hard because covering something like this is just so tragic, it's tough to put yourself out of the funk. Today is both of those days.

For starters, playing the blame game in politics in the midst of a tragedy like this is always difficult for me. The images from Maui are so hard to process, and imagining, even for a moment, that something like this is happening in your own neighborhood is enough to break your heart. Like Alaska, I think there are times Hawaii feels to us in the continental U.S. like some kind of auxiliary state that is far away and out of mind unless we're planning a vacation. But I'm thinking of and praying for all the Hawaiians, including many readers of Tangle, who are living through this horror right now. While it is tough to bring logic and pragmatism into a devastating tragedy like this one, it's also my job, and that's where I have to concede that just about everything I've read on this topic and who or what is at fault

has resonated with me. Bill Wolf's piece under what the left is saying is a convincing condemnation of government mismanagement, showing Hawaii officials knew of the very kind of wildfire threats we saw come to fruition, but opted not to fund appropriate prevention methods. The real-time response, of course, was also inadequate. Yes, alarms should have been sounded and alerts about road closures and fire spreading could have gone out much earlier. It is dumbfounding that the systems Hawaii had in place for other emergencies weren't used for this one. The way Maui was built and the construction of homes almost certainly worsened the blaze. Similarly, I thought William Balgord's piece under what the right is saying was also very compelling. The changes in Maui's landscape and the proliferation of invasive grass that dries out in months like August is obviously going to play a huge role in a fire like this. He did contradict himself in one moment, though, when he dismissed climate

change effects by noting that warmer temperatures would cause more ocean evaporation, which would cause better growth conditions during the wet season. Then, a few sentences later, he attributed the lush growth of grasslands drying out as the reason for the fire, without addressing that those same warmer temperatures may have caused that lush growth in the first place. Some other arguments from the right about a lack of fire mitigation are also apt, and at this point, it's hard to understand why poorly managed dry landscapes aren't the main focus of every government agency responsible for wildlife prevention and response. At the same time, claims that zero-carbon extremism led to Hawaiian Electric focusing on the wrong things are less convincing but also

still plausible. It's just hard to parse exactly why a company like that did such a poor job shoring up its electric lines. Corporate greed and profits, I'm sure, is just as relevant as any green initiative. The most divisive debate in all of this is over how much to blame climate change. ABC News did a controversial write-up about this, but I thought the reporting was stellar. Here is a clip from that piece. Not only do fire hurricanes not exist, but climate change can't be blamed for the number of people who died in the wildfires. Globally, climate change nudged the conditions that contribute to making wildfires more severe, but it is unclear how much of a role that played in the Maui fire event, Gavin Schmidt, the director of NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies,

told ABC News. Moreover, wildfires have the lowest confidence among natural disasters that researchers attribute to climate change, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. This doesn't mean wildfires have nothing to do with climate change. Climate change, for instance, does appear to be a driving factor behind the devastation we are seeing in Canada. It doesn't take a climatologist to understand in some places more warm weather leads to more drought, which leads to more dry land, which makes it easier for fires to spread. Throw in high wind storms that knock down power lines and push flames around so rapidly, and connecting the dots is easy. But this specific fire was probably intensified much more by other factors, such as how Maui was built, how officials prepared or didn't for wildfires, and how they

responded in real time as these fires spread. That, of course, is no reason not to discuss climate change here. When you zoom out broadly, the number of bizarre and scary weather events we're seeing, not just unusually bad wildfires, but droughts, floods, strong hurricanes, tropical storms in California, and so on, should get our attention about the regional environmental effects of climate change. But that's the wide view. With a narrow focus, climate change doesn't appear to be the driving factor of this wildfire, and it's irresponsible of many in the media to try and tie it directly to every single natural disaster. For now, the impact of one invasive species of grass in Maui seems to be the primary cause of this devastation.

seems to be the primary cause of this devastation. All right, that is it for our main story today, which brings us to our reader question. This one is from Pat in Strongsville, Ohio. Pat said, since there is a cap on the amount of tax each person contributes to Social Security, $160,200 for 2023, anyone who makes over that amount stops paying into the program when they reach the cap. A greater percentage of workers make more than the cap every year. So each year, lower wage workers continue to pay into Social Security while higher wage earners do not. Why is lifting the cap not being considered? Okay, first, for listeners who are catching up here before our break last week, I answered a question about Social Security and I ended it by saying, quote,

we simply need to either curtail the payments going out or increase the taxes going in to fund the program. So in that vein, this is a suggestion of how to better fund the program. And for the readers who are unfamiliar, this cap is called the taxable maximum, and it is set at $160,200, up from $147,000 in 2022. This number is calculated from the average wage index in a pretty complicated way that involves this year's current average wage, the average wage in 1994, and the average from two years ago, 2021. People making over that amount still pay into Social Security, but every dollar over the taxable maximum is not taxed by the Social Security administration. 6.2% of every dollar under that amount is paid by employees into Social Security,

while matching 6.2% is paid by employers. So, why is no one suggesting we adjust the formula to raise or eliminate that limit? The basic answer is people are suggesting that. In fact, a lot of them are. The Bipartisan Policy Center's suggestion to increase the cap is published online. There's the Congressional Budget Office's suggestions. There's the Peterson Foundation's suggestions. There's the Economic Policy Institute's suggestions. They all differ slightly, but they all recognize the same root cause. Wages have grown faster for top earners than for the rest of the country. So lobbyists and think tanks are talking about it, but is anyone introducing legislation to make any of those proposed changes? Yep. There's a bill from Bernie Sanders, the independent in

Vermont, introduced in the Senate. And there's one from Lisa Sanchez, the Democrat from California, introduced in the House. Do you think those bills are good solutions? Bad solutions? Want to see them debated? I don't really have my mind made up yet, but I'm always open to some good arguments. So feel free to write to me, Isaac, I-S-A-A-C, at readtangle.com. All right, next up is our under the radar section. There are tens of thousands of teacher vacancies in the United States and 160,000 jobs already filled by underqualified teachers. That's according to new research from Kansas State University's College of Education. Shortages are worse in the South and Southwest, where districts are now trying new approaches

to bring in talent. In St. Paul, Minnesota, public schools are offering $10,000 bonuses. In Midland, Texas, districts are working with local colleges to grow their own teachers, offering paid residencies and apprenticeships. Other districts are focusing on keeping who they have, offering massive payouts to teachers considering retirement in order for them to stay on. Axios has the story and there's a link in today's episode description. Next up is the numbers section. The last time there was a wildfire as deadly as the one in Maui was 1918 when northern Minnesota saw a fire that killed 453 people. saw a fire that killed 453 people. The number of people killed in the deadliest wildfire in U.S. history was 1,152 in Wisconsin's Peshtigo Fire in 1871. The estimated number of people still missing in Maui is 850. The population of Maui County is 165,000. The number of acres that burned in the fire is 2,170. The amount of money the Biden

administration has committed to helping individual families with immediate needs in Hawaii is $8.6 million. The number of consecutive days with temperatures over 100 degrees in Austin, Texas is now 27. All right, and last but not least, our have a nice day section. Ryan Dooley is a college football player at Eastern Michigan University where he noticed his teammate was struggling financially. Zach Conte has had to play his way to school for four years, and in the fall, the guy was selling his plasma to be able to pay the bills, head coach Chris Crichton told the team during a meeting on August 3rd. Unfortunately, Crichton explained to players, there were not any more scholarships to offer. That was until Brian Dooley comes into my office, Creighton recalls, and he

says, Coach, that guy has earned it, and I've talked this over with my family, and if there's a way to make this happen, I'm willing to give up my scholarship as a gift to Zach Conte. After the now viral moment when Creighton presented Conte a gift to Zach Conte. After the now viral moment when Creighton presented Conte with the scholarship, Conte said he was so honored and so thankful. USA Today has the story and there's a link to it in today's episode description. All right, everybody, that is it for today's podcast. As always, if you want to support our work, please go to readtangle.com slash membership and consider becoming a member. We'll be right back here same time tomorrow. Have a good one. Peace. Our podcast is written by me, Isaac Saul,

and edited by John Law. Our script is edited by Ari Weitzman, Bailey Saul, and Sean Brady. Thank you. We'll see you next time. the story of Willis Wu, a background character trapped in a police procedural who dreams about a world beyond Chinatown. When he inadvertently becomes a witness to a crime, Willis begins to unravel a criminal web, his family's buried history, and what it feels like to be in the spotlight. Interior Chinatown is streaming November 19th, only on Disney+. The flu remains a serious disease. Last season, over 102,000 influenza cases have been reported across Canada, which is nearly double the historic average over 102,000 influenza cases have been reported across Canada, which is nearly double the historic average of 52,000 cases. What can you do this flu season? Talk to your pharmacist or doctor about getting a flu shot. Consider FluCellVax Quad and help protect yourself from the flu. It's the first cell-based flu vaccine authorized in Canada for

ages six months and older, and it may be available for free in your province. Side effects and allergic reactions can occur, and 100% protection is not guaranteed. Learn more at flucellvax.ca.