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Trump defiant on climate change as US west burns
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US President Donald Trump has suggested global warming will reverse itself and dismissed climate change as a cause of the ferocious wildfires engulfing the West Coast of the United States.
As the focus of the US election campaign switched to the deadly blazes, Democratic challenger Joe Biden slammed the incumbent as a “climate arsonist.”
He said America would not be safe from the ravages of a warming planet unless it elects “a president who respects science.”
Infernos across California, Oregon and Washington state have burned more than 2 million hectares this year. They have killed dozens of people and forced hundreds of thousands from their homes. Whole towns have been ruined by the blazes, which have pumped out tons of noxious fumes that have hung in the air for days, blocking out the sun and making breathing difficult.
But Trump, in Sacramento on the third day of a re-election campaign swing, pushed back against state officials arguing that a heating climate underlies the ever-stronger fires.
“It will start getting cooler. You just watch,” Trump said, offering no evidence for the theory.
“I wish science agreed with you,” responded Wade Crowfoot, the head of the California Natural Resources Agency.
“I don’t think science knows, actually,” Trump said.
Instead, the president suggested that wildfires are caused by poor maintenance of forest areas, making them more combustible.
“There has to be strong forest management,” he said.
At least 26 people have died from the blazes, which have swept up the coast from California to Oregon and Washington, forcing hundreds of thousands of residents to evacuated from their homes.
Reputable scientists around the world are almost unanimous in their belief that the world is getting warmer because of human activity.
This man-made climate change amplifies droughts, which dry out regions, creating ideal conditions for wildfires to spread out-of-control and inflict unprecedented damage.
Biden, speaking at his own campaign event, said Trump’s re-election would be catastrophic for the environment.
“If you give a climate arsonist four more years in the White House, why would anyone be surprised if we have more of America ablaze?” Biden said, savaging Trump for failing to “take responsibility” for the ongoing wildfire crisis.
California Governor Gavin Newsom said he acknowledged better forest management was needed, but insisted the overwhelming cause of the problem is far bigger.
“We submit the science is in and observed evidence is self-evident: that climate change is real and that is exacerbating this.”
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