As coverage continues of the wildfires tearing through parts of California, several publications include comments by key public figures and scientists linking such fires with climate change. The Hill, reporting on comments first made in an interview with Politico, carries a statement from former Democrat California governor Jerry Brown. “I said it was the new normal a few years ago,“ he tells the news website. “This is serious…but this is only the beginning. This is only a taste of the horror and the terror that will occur in decades.” The Hill notes the comments come as current governor Gavin Newsom declares a state of emergency and Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) turns off power to about two million residents to prevent more fires sparking. Associated Press reports the company has informed regulators its power lines may already have started two of the wildfires over the weekend in the San Francisco Bay Area. Furthermore, the Financial Times adds PG&E shares have hit a record low and bonds have plunged as well “amid fresh fears of liabilities” following the fires. With California’s electricity system “failing”, Vox concludes the state needs “solar panels and microgrids” to become more resilient. The Independent notes that while there are no reports of deaths of serious injuries as yet, nearly 200,000 people have had to evacuate near the Kincade fire, the largest of eight wildfires currently blazing. According to Reuters, celebrities were being forced to flee from multimillion-dollar homes in Los Angeles.

A piece in the Washington Post examines the causes of the “Diablo” high-wind events that are driving the fires and features comments from meteorologists. It concludes that “evidence continues to mount that climate change is making their effects worse”, noting that the trend towards “larger, more frequent and destructive blazes in the state” is linked to both shifting weather patterns and dry forest conditions. The New York Times, meanwhile, focuses on research that suggests in the future a changing climate may mean California’s intense wildfires season shifts later in the year.

Other politicians outside of California also weigh in on the events and their apparent links with climate change. The Hill reports a tweet by Democrat congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez stating “this is what climate change looks like”. Meanwhile, Axios features comments from Democrat election hopefuls Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, both of whom also comment on climate change and fires.

A coalition of car manufacturers, which includes General Motors, Toyota and Fiat Chrysler, has announced an intervention on behalf of the Trump administration against California US fuel efficiency standards, according to the Washington Post. Over the summer, state regulators struck a deal with Ford, Honda and Volkswagen to produce more fuel-efficient cars and trucks, and the Post says the latest move could pit the new coalition against these “industry giants”. The companies making the challenge, together with industry lobbying group Global Automakers, said they would intervene in a lawsuit filed by environmental groups against the government. Specifically, it targets the decision to revoke a pollution waiver allowing California to set more stringent tailpipe emissions standards than those at a federal level, according to the Wall Street Journal. John Bozzella, president and CEO of Global Automakers, tells the Hill “in 2010 we agreed…on one national program. California stepped away from that national program. There were no negotiations between California and the federal government that resolved that split”.

Meanwhile, Reuters reports that Volkswagen is “ramping up” production of electric cars to around one million vehicles by end of 2022, meaning the German carmaker could “leapfrog” Tesla Inc, specifically by going into competition with them in China.

The Guardian reports on a paper featuring “the most sophisticated analysis to date” which concludes that eating health food is “almost always also best for the environment”. According to the coverage, while fruit, vegetables, beans and wholegrains help avoid disease while also protecting the climate and water resources, red and processed meat cause the most ill health as well as pollution. The paper quotes research leader Dr Michael Clark at the University of Oxford, who says: “Continuing to eat the way we do threatens societies, through chronic ill health and degradation of Earth’s climate, ecosystems and water resources. Choosing better, more sustainable diets is one of the main ways people can improve their health and help protect the environment.”

Meanwhile, in her Sky News opinion column, climate change correspondent Hannah Thomas-Peter writes about the impact of meat and dairy on the planet. “While I’m not arguing that the production and consumption of plant-based diets is environmentally perfect, I still think the case for cutting down meat and dairy is really clear,” she writes. “There seem to be so many risks if we don’t and so many benefits if we do.”

Scott Morrison’s government has “quietly appointed” an expert panel to tackle Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions – and given it less than a month to come up with recommendations, according to the Guardian. It notes the move comes despite the government’s AU$2.55bn “emissions reduction fund” and statements by the leadership that Australia is on track to meet its 2030 emissions target announced before the Paris climate conference. According to the paper, this is “seen by observers as an acknowledgment” that the government’s climate strategy is insufficient. Meanwhile, the Australian Associated Press reports on clashes between protesters and police at an international mining conference in Melbourne. Finally, SBS News reports comments by the opposition Labor leader Anthony Albanese that Australia can become a “green energy superpower” while maintaining traditional coal exports and mining jobs.

An editorial in the Los Angeles Times reflects on the fact that, despite widespread enforced blackouts to prevent downed power lines from setting off fires, massive blazes are once again ravaging the state. “Nobody can honestly say this is a surprise, given the devastating fires of recent years. Yet it feels surprising all the same. How did things get so bad in California, so quickly?” it asks. “The answer is climate change. It is here and our communities are not ready for it.” The editorial notes it is “woefully apparent that the state’s infrastructure cannot handle this new normal”, and says there is a need to retrofit the state to make it more resistant to this threat, by making sure buildings are fire resistant and burying power lines. “Climate change is at our doorstep in California. The rest of the world should be paying attention,” it concludes.

Another editorial in the San Francisco Chronicle states that “it could have been worse, much worse, without the unprecedented preparation and response”, and commends the action of “about 3,000 firefighters and the strategies of their commanders”. It, too, notes the influence of climate change on wildfire conditions. “The Kincade Fire is expected to endure for another week or more. Most unsettling is the reality that this weekend is not an aberration, but yet another reminder of a new normal in California.”

The Daily Telegraph has a piece by Henry Smith, Conservative MP for Crawley, who concludes that after years of “failed attempts” to establish a new fossil-fuel sector in the form of fracking for shale gas, the time has come to bring an end to the fledgling industry in the UK once and for all. “It’s not economically beneficial, it’s not in line with our world-leading commitment to end the UK’s contribution to climate change by reaching net zero by 2050 and it’s not popular with our constituents,” he writes, also noting last week’s report by the National Audit Office which flagged the lack of progress made so far. Instead, the MP says the nation should support the renewables industry, which he notes already supports 400,000 jobs and “now offers the potential to reduce energy bills”. He adds: “The scale and urgency of climate change means we should only be investing in industries and technologies that are compatible with a net zero world. If we’re serious about being a global environmental leader, then it’s time to stop fracking around.”

A piece by the Guardian’s global environment editor, Jonathan Watts, explores how he aims to communicate with readers about climate change in a way that resonates with them. “Some days, I am filled with dread. Some nights, I have trouble sleeping. But I would not swap my job for any other,” he begins, before looking back on time he has spent reporting on the environment from “the disappearing wonders of a rapidly deteriorating world” in the Arctic and the Amazon. “The primary challenge for a journalist is to make it feel personal. Without that, the science becomes abstract, global issues seem too huge to grasp, and it becomes difficult to relate to far off places and other species,” he says, reflecting on how over the past year the environment has been brought more to the forefront. “To accurately reflect the disruption caused by the crisis, we have to disrupt our normal forms of reporting…In future, I hope journalists in all organisations and fields will question their role, put more priority on humankind’s relationship with nature, and re-imagine what coverage should be.”

Meanwhile, a series of articles on journalism website Nieman Reports explores environmental journalism. These include a piece by Dr James Painter on five tips for better coverage of the “climate crisis” (which cites Carbon Brief’s use of data visualisation), another on a “slow journalism” project chronicling four communities on the “front lines of the climate crisis” every five years until 2050, and, finally, an article by former Environmental Protection Agency director Gina McCarthy and her advice to climate journalists.

A new study assesses the impact of capacity markets, which make payments to power generators to maintain electricity supply. Although these markets “can stabilise generator revenues, making investment in capacity more attractive for risk-averse investors”, the researchers say, they can have an “asymmetric effect”. This means they tilt “the resource mix towards those with lower fixed costs and higher operating costs”. An implication of this is that “current market structures may be ill-suited to financing low-carbon resources, the most scalable of which have high fixed costs and near-zero operating costs”, the study concludes.

Trade between the US and China accounts for 2.5% of the global shipping CO2 emissions, a new study says, and “4.8% of ship-related global premature deaths caused by air pollution”. Using a shipping emission inventory model based on satellite-data of vessels, the researchers “evaluated trade-embodied shipping emissions and their impacts on human health”. Then combining this with international trade databases, the researchers “traced shipping impacts back to responsible bilateral trade and proposed an integrated trade–shipping–air quality–health impact nexus”.

Atmospheric rivers have contributed to surface melt on the West Antarctic ice sheet, new research suggests – particularly in areas that rarely experience melting conditions. Using an “atmospheric river detection algorithm”, the researchers find that “atmospheric rivers are associated with around 40% of the total summer meltwater generated across the Ross Ice Shelf to nearly 100% in the higher elevation Marie Byrd Land”. The study concludes: “1-2C warming and continued increase in atmospheric river activity could increase the melt frequency with consequences for ice shelf stability.