He still stands by his research but gets a parting shot after leaving his profession.

I am a climate scientist. And while climate change is an important factor affecting wildfires over many parts of the world, it isn’t close to the only factor that deserves our sole focus.

So why does the press focus so intently on climate change as the root cause? Perhaps for the same reasons I just did in an academic paper about wildfires in Nature, one of the world’s most prestigious journals: it fits a simple storyline that rewards the person telling it. 

The paper I just published—“Climate warming increases extreme daily wildfire growth risk in California”—focuses exclusively on how climate change has affected extreme wildfire behavior. I knew not to try to quantify key aspects other than climate change in my research because it would dilute the story that prestigious journals like Nature and its rival, Science, want to tell. 

Dr. Brown does subscribe to human-caused climate change, and impacts catastrophes (like wildfires). However, he is saying it is not the only nor the most important reason why they occur. He says while most wildfires are started by humans, it is mostly due to poor forest management or improper care of electric power wires, and addressing these two factors would eliminate much of the problem.

Dr. Brown’s essay explains why the media and academia relentlessly barrage the public with climate change propaganda. The research is rigged to optimize odds of being published and then advertise exaggerated headlines. It’s climate activism in disguise and this is what has lead to human-caused climate change being furthered by academics and most of the mainstream the press.