California, Washington, and Oregon are suffering from devastating wildfires. California especially is suffering not only devastating property damage, but also many have lost homes and even lives due to these fires.
And Trump still insists that climate change isn't real. We all know by now that he doesn't believe in it, but some small part of me hoped he would change his stance a little seeing that these states are literally on fire. Disappointing me per usual, his stances on why the fires are happening this time are, well, wild.
Here are 3 quotes that Trump has said about the wildfires that prove he doesn't care about the climate, or the people living in it, at all.
"Clean the forest"
Recently, Trump flew to California to assess the damage caused by the raging fires across the state. Instead of accepting that this is caused by Global Warming, he ended up blaming California stating it was their own fault for the fires and that the forest wasn't "clean" and cleared for leaves. He then threatened to "make them pay for it because they don't listen".
By saying that it's California's own fault for the fires starting, proves that Trump doesn't care about the people living in this state at all. He'd rather blame his citizen for natural disasters than accept that climate change is real.
"We're just a small speck" in the climate problem
File:Bear Fire on Highway 162 - 2020-09-10.jpg - WikipediaWhen Trump was asked if he thought climate change has anything to do with the fires increasing in California he stated this,
"You know, so you have a lot of countries that are going to have to change because they make up — we're just a small speck. They make up a big preponderance of the pollution. And so you have to get them to do it, and nobody ever talks about that."
This quote is very ironic and shows that Trump hasn't been paying attention to his own environmental rollbacks. Since the start of his term, he's reversed and/or weakened many major climate rules. All of these rollbacks put together are expected to result in 1.8 billion metric tons of greenhouse gases being released into the atmosphere by 2035, according to the NYTimes.
That's more than Britain, Germany, and Canada combined, disproving his statement above.
"Well, they just explode."
At a press interview, Trump was asked if the fires were caused by the possibility of both forest management and climate change. Trump responded by stating this,
"[The trees] become very dry. They become, really, like a matchstick. And they get up — you know, there's no more water pouring through, and they become very, very — well, they just explode. They can explode."
Something, obviously, about this fact seems very off. I'm still not quite sure what he meant about trees exploding, but it is clear that Trump doesn't understand how these fires have started at all.
A president that cared would have made the time and effort to do research before stating their opinion on the matter.
Trump has proven time and time again that he doesn't care about our planet or the American people. With the election coming up in November, if you care about either one of those things, even just a little bit, vote him out.
