Wildfires, religion and the importance of information literacy
Like any true Nigerian, I belong to almost a hundred WhatsApp groups. Secondary school classmates, university colleagues, work groups, associations, book clubs, family groups, projects, research, online classes etc. So it didn’t come as a surprise to me when a photo showing only what can be described as a miracle of a house spared by […]
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Like any true Nigerian, I belong to almost a hundred WhatsApp groups. Secondary school classmates, university colleagues, work groups, associations, book clubs, family groups, projects, research, online classes etc. So it didn’t come as a surprise to me when a photo showing only what can be described as a miracle of a house spared by the wildfires in Los Angeles went viral.
All the houses surrounding the building were scorched to the ground, leaving only one house. What was surprising, however, was the way Nigerians were laying claim to the property. In one Islamic class group, one person shared the photo, with the caption, “Wildfires in California destroys houses except white mosque,” while in another MWAN group, one doctor shared the same picture with the title: “Fire in California burns all residences except church.”
See me see local wahala.
A simple google reverse search and a few minutes later, the truth revealed itself. The building was neither a church nor mosque. It was someone’s house. How was that house spared? We don’t know. Maybe the person bathed with the blood of Jesus or performed tahajjud all night, or even buried some voodoo underneath. It could be anything.
Whether Christian or Muslim, we all agree that miracles happen. We also know for sure that these types of lies maliciously misleading the public are wrong.
Now, I do not claim to be a meteorologist, but epic events like southern California wildfires usually do not have a singular cause. While the official cause of the fires has not been disclosed, scientists have confirmed that the weather and climate conditions made a perfect storm for the rapid spread of flames.
To start with, LA has been very dry. The city that houses many Hollywood royalties only had 0.16 inches of rain since May last year. This, of course created a lot of fuel for potential fires. Then there were the exceptionally fierce winds that spread the fires rapidly once they were ignited. The winds are so strong that they are spreading the fires faster than anyone can stop them.
ABC news reports that 36 hours before the fires started, the national weather service in Los Angeles warned of “life-threatening and destructive winds with extreme fire behaviour and likely the strongest north winds in southern California since 2011”.
As far as climate change is concerned, we won’t know for sure until climate attribution studies are done. And while climate change has likely amplified some of the conditions that contributed to the massive destruction of wildfires, it is just part of the long laundry list of things that could cause the fires, including rapid urbanisation, poor land management and poor building structures.
Asian Americans, who make up the third-largest racial group in Los Angeles and the most religiously diverse group in the U.S, have united in response to the wildfires, reported the NBC. Individuals from various faiths, including Christians, Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Muslims, Jews and Taoists are raising funds and volunteering to assist those in need. Videos and images of people of different faiths uniting to help serve food and drink have filled our screen; yet, instead of us in Africa to use this catastrophe as a season for reflection, we are busy cursing, fighting and dragging ownership of one Oyinbo man’s property all over the internet.
Nigerian pastors and imams are saying that the wildfire is as a result the sins of the West. Please has anyone checked the number of people that have died from the fire? As at yesterday, it was only 25 people! That is not even up to the number of people that died from one tanker accident in Jigawa State last year! And if sins were the reason for the wildfires, then my dears, Nigeria should be in flames right now.
My concern, however, is not our religious leaders. At the core of my being is foolishly, the amount of shock I felt when I saw how many people reposted the viral picture of the fictious mosque/church. People I thought to be enlightened, exposed and intellectually above par were forwarding and sharing the picture. Have we become so blind?
In the early days of the modern web, there was a running joke about not believing everything one read on the internet. It seems that somewhere along the way, our distrust of unknown information gave way to blind trust in everything and anything we see online. Just how did we get the point where we believe what we see on the web without verification; and how has this helped accelerate the modern deluge of misinformation? How did we get to this point?
I have a theory. Much of modern digital misinformation started with the collapse of the traditional gatekeepers model that has historically governed the informational landscape of societies. People were taught from an early age to accept information provided by elites and religious leaders, ranging from the government to the mainstream news media and the academia on face value without question.
Historically, this model worked to some degree because various governments had the force of law and physical power to enforce their version of “the truth” regardless of what really happened, while the academia faced rigorous peer review and editorial processes to weed out questionable theories and experiments.
The breakdown in trust in these institutions, coupled with the collapse of the gatekeeper model means that the society has suddenly been thrust into an informational void without the proper training on how to properly evaluate the information in front of them.
Rather than professional journalists carefully researching stories and filtering out rumours and falsehoods, these dedicated gatekeepers have been bypassed by modern digital platforms like TikTok, WhatsApp and Facebook et al that allow the public to access “information” without these protective filters. You see the problem?
Unfortunately, our educational systems have not adapted to this new digital age. Instead of promoting speed over accuracy, schools should teach students to prioritise getting their stories right, rather than being first. Even within the community of professional online researchers, there is often lack of familiarity with basic historical research principles like the difference between primary and secondary sources.
We really ought to know better. This race to forward and share information before verifying the source only serves as a source of embarrassment to us all, Muslims and Christians alike.