Obviously there are the climate change denialists who think “global elites” have paid actors setting forest fires around the globe, but there are also reputable people saying this. When I hear arson, I hear a person starting a fire with malicious intent. Are there really massive numbers of malicious firestarters around the globe, or does arson also cover things like recklessness/carelessness, like if I burn trash in my backyard or start a campfire on the woods and it gets out of control?
in my part of fire country, we’ve had four big wildfires in the last decade and one of them was actually caused by “arson”. the fire department is always trying to figure out how the fire started, and if some human caused the fire they call it arson. it’s pretty much the second thing you said. if you started a camp fire in the woods out here right now you’d be fined if caught. there are big signs every where in natural areas that say whether fire is allowed or not, and it’s usually not. there are also mandates for trimming trees and clearing brush before traditional fire season starts. burning trash or starting a campfire in the woods at this point about be a malicious or negligent act, and that makes it legally arson.
the way the brush fires work in our neck of the woods is that mountains and canyons that run east to west create a natural bellows when wind comes off the great basin. any fire that starts rapidly spirals out of control, and high winds can send embers and chunks of debris dozens of miles to start new fires. fires don’t just randomly burst into existence naturally though. part of my high school burned down cause of a guy flicking cigarette butts into dry grass. one of them was the power company, another was sunlight hitting broken glass in a field, and the most recent one was a transformer on some private street exploding. idk how the fire people figure this out once it’s all a burn scar, but arson is a real thing that causes wildfires.
you’re totally right that the coverage of it as arson is super sensationalizing and kinda weird, especially because calfire won’t announce a cause for a few more days or weeks. the news in LA fucking loves to talk about crime and make fun of people. in my memory, people who started campfires or had some of their property start a wildfire are usually cast as homeless/ drug addicts/ otherwise disposable. if it’s obfuscating blame, i’d say it’s not the news covering for climate change, it’s them covering for the state’s ineptitude. crime and person of interest stories are like jingling keys in front of many of my neighbors, so we aren’t asking about evacution plans, future proofing, water management, or zoning laws.