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Wildfires, beyond the headlines
Wildfires, beyond the headlines. Originally published by Yale Climate Connections.
By SueEllen Campbell · 2026-09-06T05:39:14.133Z
Headlines about wildfires and bad air seem to be ubiquitous this summer, along with their climate change kin: heat waves, heat domes, and drought. But important wildfire stories don’t always garner big headlines in big media venues, perhaps seeming too small in scale, too localized, too subtle, too complicated. Right now, though, in what we might call peak wildfire journalism season, a good number of such stories can be found. As prologue, this piece offers a valuable context for reading about fires and understanding what does and does not count as news: “ Wildfires: why media coverage doesn’t always make the climate connection. https://theconversation.com/wildfires why media coverage doesnt always make the climate connection 288409 ” Doug Specht, The Conversation. The next five pieces are longer essays or commentaries that range widely through information and ideas, often but not always written from a personal point of view. What is lost in a fire After deaths, the most obvious losses from wildfires are material — homes, possessions, whole towns — but other important losses are not. These personal accounts reveal some of the other casualties. Read more: Urban firestorm devastates Spokane as dense smoke envelops the Northwest https://yaleclimateconnections.org/2026/08/urban firestorm devastates spokane as dense smoke envelops the northwest/ A viral summer photo As sometimes happens, one of this summer’s photos went viral. An image of people on a beach looking towards an ominous firescape is both striking and thought provoking, as these two pieces illustrate. Both stories contain the image; the second has a more complete version. The health effects of smoke While it is easy these days to find information about how dangerous wildfire smoke is for human bodies, these pieces offer something a little different from the standard. Read more: Improving indoor air quality might save your life https://yaleclimateconnections.org/2025/12/improving indoor air quality might save your life/ Regional fire stories Just as stories about individual people encountering wildfires can illuminate the experiences of many other people, articles that focus on local features behind regional fires also illustrate the ways such features come together at larger scales. 12 picks for your last book of the summer https://yaleclimateconnections.org/2026/08/12 picks for your last book of the summer/ A review of rescued climate data https://yaleclimateconnections.org/2026/08/a review of rescued climate data/ 15 new books for five new takes on climate change https://yaleclimateconnections.org/2026/08/15 new books for five new takes on climate change/ Only 28% of U.S. residents regularly hear about climate change in the media, but 77% want that news. We can change that, and our only limitation is the size of our budget. Unlike some outlets, we don’t have fossil fuel backers. And we’re not funded directly by Yale University. Will you chip in to put more climate news in front of Americans in 2025? Get the newsletter for people who love the planet. You'll receive the latest climate change news, tips, and inspiring stories twice a week. Sign up to be part of the solution today. Republish This Story Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license. Republish this article This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial NoDerivatives 4.0 International License https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by nc nd/4.0/ . We love it when others republish our articles. Most of our content – other than images – is available to republish for free under a Creative Commons https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by nc nd/4.0/deed.en license CC BY NC ND 4.0 . Here’s what to do: by SueEllen Campbell, Yale Climate Connections September 4, 2026 SueEllen Campbell created and for over a decade curated the website "100 Views of Climate Change," a multidisciplinary collection of pieces accessible to interested non specialists. She is especially interested... More by SueEllen Campbell https://yaleclimateconnections.org/author/sueellen/