Antonia Cereijido
covers arts, culture and entertainment for LAist’s on-demand team.
Published March 5, 2025 6:00 AM
Tierra de la Culebra Park in the 1990s.
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Courtesy Tricia Ward
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Topline:
Tucked away amid houses and a block away from coffee shops, yoga studios, and vintage stores of Highland Park, there's a little sanctuary dotted with native plants and soft light that filters through a canopy of leaves. It’s a tiny art park called La Tierra de la Culebra. We dive into the hidden history of this neighborhood gem.
Why it matters: There is an annual Dia de los Muertos celebration put on by the Chicana-owned Avenue 50 Studio gallery, recurring jazz performances put on by the record label Leaving Records and regular clothes swaps and art shows. But just below this idyllic surface, there is a battle between the past and present.
The backstory: La Tierra de la Culebra was founded in the early 1990s as a response to the uprising that was spurred by the beating of Rodney Kidney by L.A. police. Artist Tricia Ward received a grant by Los Angeles’s Department of Cultural Affairs to create a healing space. She wanted to create a park where she would not only showcase her sculptural work, but give the community a place to experience nature.
Read on... for more on how the park came to be and what it's future looks like.
Tucked away amid houses and a block away from coffee shops, yoga studios, and vintage stores of Highland Park, there's a little sanctuary dotted with native plants and soft light that filters through a canopy of leaves. It’s a tiny art park called La Tierra de la Culebra.
There is an annual Dia de los Muertos celebration put on by the Chicana-owned Avenue 50 Studio gallery, recurring jazz performances put on by the record label Leaving Records and regular clothes swaps and art shows. But just below this idyllic surface, there is a battle between the past and present.
Tierra de la Culebra park in Highland Park.
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Samanta Helou Hernandez
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LAist
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How the heightened racial tensions of the 90s birthed a tiny park
La Tierra de la Culebra was founded in the early 1990s as a response to the uprising that was spurred by the beating of Rodney Kidney by L.A. police. Artist Tricia Ward received a grant by Los Angeles’s Department of Cultural Affairs to create a healing space. She wanted to create a park where she would not only showcase her sculptural work, but give the community a place to experience nature.
At the time, Highland Park was a mostly Latino neighborhood. And there was some initial skepticism of what Ward was doing in the park.
Aztec dancers at Tierra de la Culebra Park in the 1990s.
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Courtesy Tricia Ward
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Aztec dancers and drummers surround the oak tree at Tierra de la Culebra Park in the 1990s.
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Courtesy Tricia Ward
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“Who is this lady?” Erik Barazza, who lived down the street from the park and was a teenager at the time, remembers asking himself. “ I was always taught like, ‘Oh, white people don't like you. So what are you trying to do in this community?'”
But Barazza started changing his tune once he got involved in programming in the park, which included indigenous drumming and folkloric dance. He credits Ward with helping him establish his drumming career and says he’s played with acts like Carlos Santana and Los Caifanes.
Erik Barraza (far right) drums at Tierra de la Culebra Park in the 1990s.
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Courtesy Tricia Ward
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In 2000, Ward decided to sell the land the park occupied to the city of Los Angeles. Ward says she thought that if the city owned the park, it wouldn’t be developed into housing and could stay as a public good in perpetuity even after Ward was no longer around to care for it.
The city became the park’s official owner, but leased the land to Ward’s nonprofit, ArtsCorpsLA, so she would continue to maintain it.
Erik Barraza found indigneous drumming at Tierra de la Culebra in the 90s. Up until recently, he would still host Mexica drum and dance practice around the central oak tree of the park.
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Samanta Helou Hernandez
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LAist
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Tierra de la Culebra park is full of texture and quirky plants.
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Samanta Helou Hernandez
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LAist
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But in 2007, Ward lost control over the park. She dealt with a series of personal losses. Her husband, who handled a lot of the logistics, died. Then, her nonprofit, through which she hired people to operate the park, went bankrupt and closed.
After two decades of taking care of the park, Ward’s stewardship started to wither and the park entered a period of neglect.
Tricia Ward founded Tierra de la Culebra park in the 1990s as a way to provide a healing space in Highland Park, which at the time was a predominantly working class Latino neighborhood.
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Samanta Helou Hernandez
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LAist
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New stewards enter La Tierra de La Culebra
In 2020, the world went into lockdown due to COVID. But once things started opening up again, Ward went to see how the park was doing — and realized that someone else had stepped in to program and maintain the park.
It turns out a ragtag group of neighbors had started to do basic maintenance tasks like take out trash, program events and tend to the plants. Most of these neighbors had moved in during the “gentrification wave” — a period that began in the aughts after the addition of a Metro line stop in Highland Park led to a revitalization plan that saw the influx of high-end coffee shops, bars and restaurants that popped up on the main drags of the neighborhood — Figueroa Street and York Avenue.
When Tierra de la Culebra went into a period of neglect, David Lasky, a local resident of Highland Park joined a group of neighbors in maintaing the park.
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Samanta Helou Hernandez
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LAist
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When Ward saw the park and how it was being maintained, instead of feeling relief that it hadn't been abandoned, everywhere she looked, she saw something she felt was wrong. She didn’t like the landscaping; there were parts of the park she had designed that were dismantled, and she thought the programming wasn’t inclusive to the community for which she had initially built it.
Ward discovered there was a website called www.latierradelaculebra.com dedicated to the park and its programming that didn’t include the park’s history, run by a group that was calling themselves “La Culebra Action League.” She hired a trademark lawyer and sent them a cease and desist to stop using “la culebra” in their materials. Some legal threats were swapped, but ultimately, no actual legal action was taken.
Tricia Ward founded Tierra de la Culebra park in the 1990s as a way to provide a healing space in Highland Park, which at the time was a predominantly working class Latino neighborhood.
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Samanta Helou Hernandez
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LAist
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Tierra de la Culebra park is full of texture and quirky plants.
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Samanta Helou Hernandez
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LAist
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The park today
Today if you go to the park there’s a high likelihood you will see David Lasky, an enthusiastic neighbor who has taken it upon himself to be the park’s gardener. He will sometimes stay up until 3 a.m. pruning and planting. The La Culebra Action League already has a calendar of events through September 2025 up on its website, including a music show, a clothing swap and Day of the Dead celebration.
When Tierra de la Culebra went into a period of neglect, David Lasky, a local resident of Highland Park joined a group of neighbors in maintaing the park.
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Samanta Helou Hernandez
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LAist
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The district La Culebra is in is overseen by Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez. Her office stated that the department that could most accurately characterize how the park’s stewardship is managed is the Department of Parks and Recreation, which did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
Tierra de la Culebra park in Highland Park.
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Samanta Helou Hernandez
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LAist
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Ward is still committed to fighting against what she sees as the erasure of her work and the original intent of the park. Meanwhile, it seems the informal governance of the park will continue. The park, despite any disputes, continues to be a haven for local residents.
Tucked away in Highland Park - a neighborhood that’s been dubbed “ground zero” for gentrification - sits a small park dotted with native plants and spiraling mosaic sculptures. La Tierra de la Culebra Park was established in the early 90s by guerilla artist Tricia Ward. In the decades since, the neighborhood has transformed massively and a battle has emerged between the founder and the new stewards of the park over who the park is for and how the park should be preserved.
Highland Park: Land of the snake
Tucked away in Highland Park - a neighborhood that’s been dubbed “ground zero” for gentrification - sits a small park dotted with native plants and spiraling mosaic sculptures. La Tierra de la Culebra Park was established in the early 90s by guerilla artist Tricia Ward. In the decades since, the neighborhood has transformed massively and a battle has emerged between the founder and the new stewards of the park over who the park is for and how the park should be preserved.
Yusra Farzan
wants to help Southern Californians connect with faith communities around the region.
Published January 7, 2026 1:55 PM
The Eaton Fire destroyed buildings at the Pasadena Jewish Temple and Center a year ago.
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Mario Tama
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Getty Images
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Topline:
The Eaton Fire destroyed the Pasadena Jewish Temple and Center, where over 400 families would gather to worship and which has served as a Jewish community space for over 100 years. Josh Ratner, the senior rabbi at the temple, says that in the year since he has been leaning on the Jewish history of resilience and rebuilding to provide pastoral care to the congregation.
The context: Thirty families of the congregation lost their homes, while another 40 families have had to relocate.
Read on ... for more of what the synagogue's rabbi said on LAist's AirTalk.
The Eaton Fire destroyed the Pasadena Jewish Temple and Center, where over 400 families would gather to worship and which has served as a Jewish community space for over 100 years.
On the anniversary of the fire Wednesday, Josh Ratner, the senior rabbi at the temple, told LAist’s AirTalk program that the congregation has been gathering at the First United Methodist Church in Pasadena.
“ It has certainly been a unique challenge," he said, "in a sense of us going through a double crisis, a double tragedy of the loss of our building, which has meant so much to so many of our congregants, and the loss of so many congregants’ homes.”
Thirty families of the congregation lost their homes, while another 40 families have had to relocate.
As the fire raged, Cantor Ruth Berman Harris raced to save all 13 sacred Torah scrolls, pieces of parchment with Hebrew text used at services, including Shabbat. The scrolls are now being stored at the Huntington Library in San Marino.
Everything else in the temple was lost in the fire.
In 2019, UCLA acquired temple records, including newsletters, yearbooks, board minutes, membership directories, financial reports, booklets, photographs and video and audio recordings. Community members can access that information, tracing Pasadena’s Jewish history from the 1930s to present day.
Ratner said that since the fire, he has leaned into what led him to becoming a rabbi — “the ability to provide pastoral care and love” as the congregation has grappled with losing their spiritual home.
“ The Jewish tradition and Jewish history is we're no strangers to crisis and to dislocation and to exile," Ratner said. "So there are a lot of themes from the Bible itself and the idea of the Israelites wandering for 40 years in the wilderness before reaching the promised land and living in that sense of dislocation and impermanence.”
From ancient times to the recent past, he went on, temples are destroyed and Jewish people are persecuted and forced to relocate.
”We have overcome so much before as a people. I think that that gives us some firm foundation to know that we can recover from this as well,” he said. “And not just recover, but really our histories of people is one of rebuilding even stronger than before. Each time there's been a crisis, we've been able to reinvent different aspects of Judaism and to evolve.”
A brief history of the Pasadena Jewish Temple and Center
The building was built in 1932 and sits on a 91,000-square-foot parcel of land, according to L.A. County records.
The congregation traces its roots to 19th century Jewish residents of Pasadena. Official incorporation of Temple B’nai Israel of Pasadena by the State of California happened in 1921.
In the 1940s, the congregation purchased the a Mission revival building that later burned in the Eaton Fire.
In 1956 the congregation changed its name to the Pasadena Jewish Temple and Center.
Rock singer David Lee Roth had his Bar Mitzvah at the center in the 1970s.
In the late 1990s and 2010s, the congregation merged with synagogues in Sunland-Tujunga and Arcadia.
In 2014 it became the first Conservative congregation to employ a transgender rabbi when it hired Becky Silverstein as education director.
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has announced new dietary guidelines for Americans focused on promoting whole foods, healthy proteins and fats.
The new food pyramid: At a press conference today, the administration unveiled a new food pyramid with red meat, cheese, vegetables and fruits pictured at the top. The guidelines will set limits on added sugar, and encourage diets that include meat and dairy. For years, Americans have been advised to limit saturated fat and the new pyramid is facing criticism.
Why it matters: Though most Americans don't actually read the dietary guidelines, they are highly influential in determining what's served in school meals and on military bases, as well as what's included in federal food aid for mothers and infants, as the guidelines set targets for calories and nutrients.
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has announced new dietary guidelines for Americans focused on promoting whole foods, healthy proteins and fats.
At a press conference today, the administration unveiled a new food pyramid with red meat, cheese, vegetables and fruits pictured at the top.
Secretary Kennedy described the new guidelines as the most significant re-set on nutrition policy in history, calling for an end to policies that promote highly-refined foods that are harmful to health.
The guidelines will set limits on added sugar, and encourage diets that include meat and dairy.
"Protein and healthy fats are essential and were wrongly discouraged in prior dietary guidelines," Kennedy said. "We are ending the war on saturated fats."
As an introduction to the new guidelines, Kennedy and Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins called for a dramatic reduction" in the consumption of highly processed foods," ladened with refined carbohydrates, added sugars, excess sodium, unhealthy fats and chemical additives.
"This approach can change the health trajectory for many Americans," they wrote, pointing out that more than 70% of American adults are overweight or obese due to "a diet that has become reliant on highly processed foods and coupled with a sedentary lifestyle."
For years, Americans have been advised to limit saturated fat and the new pyramid is facing criticism.
"I'm very disappointed in the new pyramid that features red meat and saturated fat sources at the very top, as if that's something to prioritize, it does go against decades and decades of evidence and research," says Christopher Gardner, a nutrition expert at Stanford University. He was a member of the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee, which reviewed all the nutrition evidence.
The guidelines also elevate cheese and other dairy to the top of the pyramid, paving the way for the option of full-fat milk and dairy products in school meals. There's growing evidence, based on nutrition science, that dairy foods can be beneficial.
"It's pretty clear that overall milk and cheese and yogurt can be part of a healthy diet," says Dr. Dariush Mozaffarian, a cardiologist, public health scientist and director of the Food is Medicine Institute at Tufts University. "Both low fat and whole fat dairy versions of milk, cheese and yogurt have been linked to lower cardiovascular risk," he says.
"What's quite interesting is that the fat content doesn't seem to make a big difference. So both low fat and whole fat dairy versions of milk, cheese and yogurt have been linked to lower cardiovascular risk," Mozaffarian says.
Mozaffarian says he supports the recommendations to lower consumption of highly processed foods. "Highly processed foods are clearly harmful for a range of diseases, so to have the U.S. government recommend that a wide class of foods be eaten less because of their processing is a big deal and I think a very positive move for public health," he says.
Though most Americans don't actually read the dietary guidelines, they are highly influential in determining what's served in school meals and on military bases, as well as what's included in federal food aid for mothers and infants, as the guidelines set targets for calories and nutrients.
Copyright 2026 NPR
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Family members of victims of the Palisades Fire participated in memorial events Wednesday.
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Erin Stone
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LAist
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Topline:
In the Pacific Palisades and Altadena today, families of fire victims, survivors, elected officials and others gathered to mark the one-year anniversary of the fires that killed 31 people and reduced L.A. neighborhoods to ash and rubble.
Pacific Palisades: A memorial honored the 12 people who died. Then people gathered for a protest that directed anger at L.A. city leadership.
Altadena: Survivors called for more support — from SoCal Edison, from insurance companies and from the federal government — at a news conference.
Read on ... for details about the events and photos.
At American Legion Post 283 in the heart of the Palisades, more than 100 fire survivors gathered Wednesday morning for a private ceremony for the families who lost loved ones in the fire. After the memorial, Los Angeles police officers on horseback led a procession, followed by bagpipers, then families of those who lost their lives in the fire a year ago.
Then in a ceremony on the Palisades Village Green, a bell was rung 12 times for the 12 people who died in the fire.
“No community should have to endure this level of devastation and loss and trauma,” said Jessica Rogers, executive director of the Palisades Long Term Recovery Group, which organized the memorial. “This past year has tested us beyond measure — physically, emotionally and spiritually. And yet, here we stand together.”
Eaton Fire survivors call for support
Hundreds of people turned out for a news conference in Altadena on the one-year anniversary of the Eaton Fire.
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Nick Gerda
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LAist
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Meanwhile, in Altadena, survivors and elected officials held a news conference to raise concerns about their recovery experience so far and to call for action.
They said survivors have been wrongfully denied the support they need to stay housed in the wake of losing their homes — by the utility company whose equipment is believed to have started the fire, by key insurance companies and by the federal government.
Southern California Edison has acknowledged that its equipment likely started the fire, speakers Wednesday said. But they added that the compensation offered by the utility is inadequate.
State Sen. Sasha Renee Perez, who represents Altadena, said she had sent a letter to SoCal Edison leadership urging the company to provide urgent housing relief to the community.
“Part of them taking responsibility is providing the financial resources that this community needs to thrive,” Perez said to applause from the crowd. “We will not allow this community to fall into homelessness. Edison, you need to step it up.”
That was a worry for fire survivor Ada Hernandez, who said her family is at risk of having to live in their car when their housing support runs out next week.
Ada Hernandez, joined by her young daughter at Wednesday's news conference, says her family may have to live in their car.
Other speakers called out their home insurers, some of whom, they said, have illegally delayed and denied coverage. A particular focus was State Farm. A spokesperson for the insurer said they couldn't discuss individual customers' cases, but that the company is "committed to continuing being a partner with our customers throughout their recovery."
L.A. County Supervisor Kathryn Barger, who represents the area, also called on President Donald Trump to approve California’s request for tens of billions in relief to help people rebuild.
The events were just two among many held or planned for this week and in coming weeks — marking the tragedy, honoring victims, creating art and building community.
L.A. mayor's role
A key figure missing from the Palisades event, which transitioned to a planned protest as the morning progressed, was L.A. Mayor Karen Bass. Her office told LAist the mayor was attending private vigils and directed flags at City Hall to fly at half-staff.
Anger about her role in the early days of the fire response remains fresh for many Palisades Fire survivors, as evidenced by a sign at the memorial calling on her to resign, as well as people wearing shirts that said, “They let us burn.”
At a protest after the vigil, dozens of Palisadians gathered to share their frustration and demand accountability and action, including officials taking responsibility for the cause of the fire, waiving rebuild permit fees and improving responses in the case of the next disaster.
Anger was directed at L.A. city leaders at a protest in the Palisades on Wednesday.
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Erin Stone
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LAist
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Bass said on LAist’s AirTalk with Larry Mantle on Wednesday that the anniversary is a difficult day of remembrance and mourning, but she also said that it’s “a day to recommit and be hopeful and to forge on.” She added that she was encouraged to see so much rebuilding underway on recent trips to fire areas.
“I did not have a hand in writing the report, in editing the report, or, frankly, in reading the reports, the various versions,” Bass said on AirTalk. “I had no idea there were so many versions of the report.”
Bass said she requested that the City Administrative Officer review the report’s characterization of the Fire Department budget: “I just said, ‘Get accurate information,’ and that’s what I assume they did.”
Matt Szabo holds that role. LAist has reached out to him for comment.
In the aftermath of the Los Angeles fires, misinformation spread almost as fast as the flames. Some of these false narratives on social media, especially about water, have had a direct impact on California policy, legal and water experts tell NPR.
Why it matters: False narratives can distract from how best to respond to these kinds of disasters, says Max Boykoff, a University of Colorado Boulder environmental studies professor who studies media and climate change. " These are tactics to muddy the waters of public discussions," he says.
Misinformation derails a solution for misinformation: One example of false narratives having an impact was the fate of something called Senate Bill 549, says Julia Stein, deputy director for the Emmett Institute on Climate Change and the Environment at UCLA School of Law.
Read on... for more on the impact of state policy.
When Chad Comey's five-story condo building burned down in the Palisades Fire early last year, all that was left was the parking garage, a brick and stucco wall, and a few charred trees. Comey's street is now full of empty lots stretching up into the green hills.
Comey is a musician and caretaker for his two disabled parents. In the past year, they've moved five times, not wanting to overstay their welcome with friends and family, while looking for a wheelchair-accessible apartment to rent.
" I think we have a right to be angry," Comey says. "I am housed, but I am homeless."
He says some people on social media try to minimize the pain of fire survivors. "People who are trying to reduce our anger do not understand what it feels like to be homeless," he says.
Comey says some social media posts about the fire play to anger and rage, and they don't always contain accurate information. " In today's day and age on social media, one kernel of truth can be spun off into reels and rage bait," he says. "There's a lot of that."
In the aftermath of the Los Angeles fires, misinformation spread almost as fast as the flames. Some of these false narratives on social media, especially about water, have had a direct impact on California policy, legal and water experts tell NPR.
Comey, 32, got most of his news about the fires from traditional news sources like the Los Angeles Times and LAist, and he still relies on those outlets for information about the fires' aftermath. But more than half of Americans get at least some of their news from social media, according to Pew Research.
Thirty-one people died in the fires in the Palisades and Altadena neighborhoods. An area roughly three times the size of Manhattan burned.
False narratives can distract from how best to respond to these kinds of disasters, says Max Boykoff, a University of Colorado Boulder environmental studies professor who studies media and climate change. " These are tactics to muddy the waters of public discussions," he says.
A portion of the Palisades fire burned in the hills of Los Angeles last January. After the fires, misinformation on social media had an impact on state policy.
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Ryan Kellman
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NPR
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Misinformation derails a solution for misinformation
One example of false narratives having an impact was the fate of something called Senate Bill 549, says Julia Stein, deputy director for the Emmett Institute on Climate Change and the Environment at UCLA School of Law.
Senate Bill 549 (SB 549), which was first introduced last February, would have done two things. It would have helped local governments get money to build transit-oriented development and low-income housing. And, it would have allowed for the creation of a central hub to manage LA's post-fire recovery. The hub was the recommendation of an independent panel of experts and local leaders.
Last summer, incorrect narratives about the bill spread quickly on social media. A key false narrative was that SB 549 would result in an influx of new, high-density affordable housing in areas impacted by the fires.
Spencer Pratt, a podcaster and former reality TV star who lost his home in the Palisades Fire, made a TikTok video about the bill, which he shared with his more than 2 million followers. In the video, Pratt says he consulted AI chatbots about the legislation. He says that the bill grants "LA County authority to purchase fire destroyed lots for minimal cost and convert them into low income housing."
Pratt also says the bill would "force low-income housing mandates." Pratt's TikTok video received over 286,000 views. Other influencers made videos and posts on X with similar messages.
The bill would not have led to more low-income housing in the Palisades, Stein says. It was designed to finance transit-oriented development for areas within half a mile of "major transit stop" as defined by California law. Those include a rail or bus rapid transit station, or a ferry terminal. The Palisades, a neighborhood near the ocean and in the Santa Monica mountains, is not near a "major transit stop."
"You have injected this narrative that what this bill is trying to do is build dense, affordable housing and big apartment buildings in the Palisades," Stein says. "Even though the bill wouldn't have done those things."
In an emailed statement to NPR, Spencer Pratt wrote, "Pacific Palisades is a multi-generational family town with rich history and character. SB 549 would drastically change the Palisades and other wildfire disaster areas by allowing government to purchase fire damaged lots and bank them for affordable housing. In the aftermath of the greatest tragedy of our lives, we just want the Palisades to be what it once was."
While SB 549 did grant the proposed central hub the ability to purchase fire-affected land at a fair price, the bill imposed no requirement that such land be used for affordable housing.
Pratt's representative, Kyell Thomas, wrote in an email, "AI is not an ongoing source of information for him."
A sign in the Palisades marks a protest a year after the LA fires. There's a widespread lack of trust with state and local agencies amongst many fire survivors.
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Julia Simon
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NPR
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Pratt posted his video on TikTok on July 15. On July 16, the bill's author, California state Sen. Ben Allen, paused the bill. Allen's office received hundreds of calls and emails. The office normally receives a few dozen calls for a hot-topic bill.
" I'm all for community engagement and public participation," Stein says, "but, in this case, folks were reacting to information that was factually incorrect."
Allen wrote in an email to NPR, "The absence of good journalism, along with misreads of the bill, allowed false narratives to spin around on the internet, which then impacted AI-generated descriptions of the bill, which people unfortunately turn to for information now. It hampered our ability to have a productive conversation on the matter."
He added, "I have no plans to move SB 549 forward."
The aftermath of the Palisades Fire is seen on an impacted stretch of the Pacific Coast Highway.
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Ryan Kellman
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NPR
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Stein provided academic research to the expert panel that recommended LA make a central recovery hub after the fires, also called the "rebuilding authority." She says the delay in creating this centralized authority because of the pausing of the bill is unfortunate. The central hub was meant to be a "single point of accountability" and information for residents who lost their homes in the fires.
"Right now," Stein says, "folks don't know where to turn."
Better fact-checking is important
There's widespread lack of trust with state and local agencies among many fire survivors, says Jake Levine, whose mom lost her home in the Palisades Fire. Levine, a former climate and energy director at the National Security Council and former adviser to a fire rebuild nonprofit, is running for Congress in a district that includes the Palisades.
Some of that mistrust may be justified, Levine says. The Los Angeles Times recently published an investigation that found that the Los Angeles Fire Department deleted and revised drafts of a key report after the fires, changing words like "failures" to "primary challenges." The Los Angeles Fire Department did not respond to a request for comment.
"I think one of the reasons why people are looking for information from all sorts of sources is because the normal institutional sources that we rely on have allowed there to be a bit of a vacuum in terms of official and reliable information," Levine says.
Levine hopes that in the future, more state, local and federal government agencies can share information directly with residents about things like air quality after fires, so that residents don't have to rely on nonprofit or commercial apps that sometimes have inaccurate information.
Boykoff says another solution is for news organizations to maintain robust fact-checking. He says as more people use AI to get information, many people are "not really tracking back to what the original sourcing is," Boykoff wrote in an email. "And so, in that new environment, there is much higher potential for mis and disinformation."
Addressing misinformation is particularly important, he says, as climate change increases the frequency and intensity of disasters.
Copyright 2026 NPR
