Making Connections is Key
In late August, as I watched the Caldor Fire move past many known landmarks in El Dorado National Forest and edge towards the Kirkwood ski town where our family’s vacation cabin resides, I was keenly aware, as any environmental journalist would be, of the climate connection. Wildfires have never before crossed the Sierra mountains, at least not in recorded history. Now we had two — Caldor and Dixie — that were doing just that within weeks of each other.
When the flames reached a ridge above Kirkwood on August 31, my husband and I took to periodically checking the cabin’s security webcam, which gives a view of the front yard and driveway, to see if it was still safe. That was how we came to spot a group of firefighters, who had been working to keep the flames away from homes, sitting in our neighbor’s driveway. When one of them walked by our cabin, we managed to use the security system’s audio to talk with him, and to offer our thanks and the use of the cabin if need be.
I posted a screenshot of the yard with the firefighters on Twitter, and it went sort of viral (by my very humble Twitter stat standards, that is). Kirkwood neighbors I’d never met started reaching out on the social platform. “Would it be possible to receive periodic feed from that camera? Our cabin is in the field of vision,” requested one. So that’s what I provided for the next four days until the threat of the fire abated.
Though the screenshots were mostly identical, it seemed to help people. “As a neighbor without a webcam it’s calming to see your images each day,” wrote in one neighbor. “However this ends up, the photos have been a comfort to my family,” wrote another.
The whole experience has me thinking about the importance of connection. Of how during times of stress (and boy, are we living through stressful times!), reaching out to each other, offering and receiving comfort, is so vital to keep us going.
But it also has left me feeling a bit despondent about how, even at this late stage, mainstream media continues to avoid mention of climate change when reporting on stories like these. I gave two interviews to cable news networks about my webcam experience. Both edited out several mentions I’d made about climate change.
Storytelling is key to helping us understand our rapidly changing world. And how we tell these stories — what we choose to leave in and what we choose to leave out — is even more important.
Maureen Nandini Mitra
Editor, Earth Island Journal
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Photo courtesy of CALFIRE.
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