Hey all, hope you’ll read my latest L.A. Times column and let me know what you think! Here’s how it starts:
>Call me basic, but I love waking up on Thanksgiving morning and watching the Macy’s parade. Without fail, I’m enthralled by the pageantry and comforted by the tradition: the floats, the crowds, the Broadway dance numbers. Santa Claus.
>
>The last few years, though, one element has bothered me.
>
>“Look who we have here — USDA Forest Service’s most-loved ambassador, Smokey Bear, towering above the parade,” Savannah Guthrie, one of the anchors of NBC’s “Today” show, told viewers during last week’s broadcast. “For nearly 80 years, this American legend has been helping protect our forests and grasslands. And he’s returning to the parade with his ever-important message — that nearly nine out of 10 wildfires are started by humans, and they can be prevented.”
>
>Turning to “Today” weather anchor Al Roker, she asked, “Hey Al, what do you think Smokey would say about that?”
>
>Putting on a voice, Roker responded with Smokey’s iconic catchphrase: “Only you can prevent wildfires!”
>
>Then the broadcast moved on. No discussion of how climate change, driven by fossil fuels, is making fires worse. Nothing about the need for intentionally ignited “prescribed burns” to help prevent bigger, deadlier blazes. Nothing about the value of “cultural burning” by Indigenous tribes, or the dangers of continued home building in flammable areas in and around forests.
>
>Maybe that’s a lot to ask of a parade.
>
>But with the fate of life as we know it hanging in the balance, how can we not ask?Would it be that hard for NBC and the federal officials behind Smokey Bear to include just a little information about what we can do to stave off total climate catastrophe, in a parade broadcast watched by tens of millions of people?
If you want to get my column in your inbox twice a week, you can sign up for our Boiling Point newsletter here: latimes.com/boilingpoint. Thank you!
very interesting, I am sure that many people here will read your articles, good luck!
2 comments
Hey all, hope you’ll read my latest L.A. Times column and let me know what you think! Here’s how it starts:
>Call me basic, but I love waking up on Thanksgiving morning and watching the Macy’s parade. Without fail, I’m enthralled by the pageantry and comforted by the tradition: the floats, the crowds, the Broadway dance numbers. Santa Claus.
>
>The last few years, though, one element has bothered me.
>
>“Look who we have here — USDA Forest Service’s most-loved ambassador, Smokey Bear, towering above the parade,” Savannah Guthrie, one of the anchors of NBC’s “Today” show, told viewers during last week’s broadcast. “For nearly 80 years, this American legend has been helping protect our forests and grasslands. And he’s returning to the parade with his ever-important message — that nearly nine out of 10 wildfires are started by humans, and they can be prevented.”
>
>Turning to “Today” weather anchor Al Roker, she asked, “Hey Al, what do you think Smokey would say about that?”
>
>Putting on a voice, Roker responded with Smokey’s iconic catchphrase: “Only you can prevent wildfires!”
>
>Then the broadcast moved on. No discussion of how climate change, driven by fossil fuels, is making fires worse. Nothing about the need for intentionally ignited “prescribed burns” to help prevent bigger, deadlier blazes. Nothing about the value of “cultural burning” by Indigenous tribes, or the dangers of continued home building in flammable areas in and around forests.
>
>Maybe that’s a lot to ask of a parade.
>
>But with the fate of life as we know it hanging in the balance, how can we not ask?Would it be that hard for NBC and the federal officials behind Smokey Bear to include just a little information about what we can do to stave off total climate catastrophe, in a parade broadcast watched by tens of millions of people?
If you want to get my column in your inbox twice a week, you can sign up for our Boiling Point newsletter here: latimes.com/boilingpoint. Thank you!
very interesting, I am sure that many people here will read your articles, good luck!