"California’s Catastrophic Wildfires in 3 Charts" by Isabella Isaacs-Thomas Inadequate maintenance is partly to blame, courts have found. According to The New York Times, PG&E’s electrical network — which serves approximately 16 million people in Central and Northern California — has been linked to multiple destructive fires, and regulators have determined that the company “violated state law or could have done more to make its equipment safer” in several cases. Power grids have also expanded to accommodate growing communities in the state, creating more opportunity for disaster. Keeley emphasized that California’s population has grown by 6 million since the year 2000. “That 6 million increase in population means more people pushed out into areas of urban sprawl, of dangerous fuels, increased ignition sources, increased potential for people getting killed, an increase in the electric grid,” Keeley said. “So if there’s anything that can explain the increase in fires in the last 20 years, my feeling is it’s population growth.” In addition to infrastructural issues like power grids, mitigating human error on an individual level is key to preventing future disaster. That’s why one of CalFire’s goals is to educate as many Californians as possible about how wildfires work, what causes them and the fact that they can affect communities in any part of the state — urban, rural or anything in between. This year’s wildfires aren’t the only natural disasters or extreme weather events to devastate communities over the past several months, renewing attention on the global need to mitigate the growing climate crisis. But given the magnitude of that task, in the context of the California wildfires, Keeley argues that looking toward tangible, human solutions to human-caused problems can offer some degree of hope. “It’s a positive view that we don’t just have to feel like we’re doomed to climate change,” Keeley said. “We can change our outcomes, in part due to how we deal with these situations.”

Question

Video transcript: State investigators found Pacific Gas and Electric did not regularly inspect or maintain its aging power lines which led to the deadly campfire last year.
In a nearly 700-page report, the California Public Utilities Commission said they found systemic problems within the company.
Investigators already concluded PG&E was responsible for the fire, but this investigation reveals more details about the build-up to the fire and the scope of the company's violations.
For instance, one claim involves the tower that started the campfire.
The report found PG&E employees hadn't climbed the tower for inspection since 2001.
It goes on to say PG&E inspectors would have been able to spot the worn hook before it broke and
sparked the campfire, which killed 85 people.
PG&E told Newsy it accepts the investigation's findings and offered its condolences to the victims of the campfire.
But the company also said that since the 2017 and 2018 fires, it started carrying out additional precautionary inspections.
It says it performed 18 months worth of inspections in just four months time.

How does the tone at the end of the video compare to the tone of the end of the article?
A. Unlike the article, the tone of the video is optimistic as it offers human solutions to wildfires.
B. Unlike the article, the tone of the video is angry as it places blame on the utility company.
C. Like the article, the tone of the video is hopeful as it presents changes to the utility company.
D. Like the article, the tone of the video is reserved as it questions the human impact on the environment.

Answer 1

The correct answer is C. Like the article, the tone of the video is hopeful as it presents changes to the utility company.

Both the article and the video convey a sense of hopefulness regarding the potential for change and improvement in practices to mitigate future wildfires. The article emphasizes the possibility of changing outcomes through addressing human-caused problems, while the video discusses the steps taken by PG&E in response to past failures, indicating a shift towards better safety practices.