Become an Independent member to bookmark this article Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? Start your Independent Membership today. Join today Already a member? Log in Typhoon Champi killed one person and injured hundreds in Taiwan, as well as downing trees and knocking out power for hundreds of thousands of people as the storm's strong winds and rains continued overnight Friday into Saturday morning.
Although Champi did not hit Taiwan directly, the storm's span was large enough to impact most of Taiwan. The island's weather authorities said the storm was weakening Saturday morning and that by evening, the land warnings for the typhoon would be removed. Taiwan’s Central Emergency Operations Center reported that 350 were injured as of Friday night. The one death was a man who was washed away by waves in Taiwan’s Pingtung county, the island’s southernmost part.
The storm knocked out power for 280,000 households, according to United Daily News, a local Taiwanese newspaper, citing the island's power authorities. But power had returned to 80% of households by Saturday morning. Across the island, the storm downed trees and signs, some smaller structures, and even the ceiling of a college dorm in Taipei . It will weaken as it head toward Japan .
The Independent reports a typhoon that killed a man and injured hundreds in Taiwan, but never tells its reader that warming makes intense tropical cyclones like this more frequent or more severe. Its headline also places the death "overnight", while the outlet's own report the day before said the man was killed on Thursday.
Leaves out the climate link
Serious
“Typhoon Champi killed one person and injured hundreds in Taiwan, as well as downing trees and knocking out power for hundreds of thousands of people”
Why this matters
The Independent sets out the death, the injuries and the power cuts from Typhoon Champi. Nowhere in the article does it link the storm to a warming climate.
The impression it gives
A reader comes away thinking this was an ordinary act of nature, with no connection to climate change.
The context
Human-caused warming has made intense tropical cyclones more frequent or more severe (R2). The outlet's own earlier report says Champi peaked at 298 kph winds, and other coverage calls it one of the strongest storms in the Pacific this year. The article never uses the words climate or warming.
How we know
On the recordThat warming has made hot extremes, heavy rainfall, agricultural and ecological drought, fire weather and intense tropical cyclones more frequent or more severe.ipcc.ch (opens in a new tab)
Checked against the whole articleIt never uses the words “climate” and “warming”.
Typhoon Champi, earlier a super typhoon, killed one person and injured hundreds in Taiwan. Climate change is making intense tropical cyclones like this more frequent and more severe.
Headline goes beyond the article
Minor
“kills 1 and injures 350 in Taiwan overnight”
Why this matters
The headline puts the death and the injuries "overnight", meaning the night of Friday into Saturday that the body describes.
The impression it gives
A reader believes the man died during the overnight storm that the article reports.
The context
The Independent's own report the day before said the man was killed on Thursday, before the overnight period. The body of this article gives no time for the death.