Presidential Candidates Response to Westcoast Wildfires
The Westcoast is, quite literally, on fire.
The fires, which were started by a few different reasons, including lightning bolts and a gender reveal party, have killed 33 people as of today and burned up to 5 million acres across California, Oregon, and Washington.
The fires that started in California were made worse and spread to the different states due to drought and a never before seen heatwave. All signs, that most experts say, point to one thing: climate change.
Both President Trump and Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden had delivered remarks on the wildfires.
President Trump met with California Governor Gavin Newsom and other state officials to discuss the growing wildfires. Secretary of the California Natural Resources Agency, Wade Crowfoot warned the president about the dangers of ignoring the science on climate change. President Trump responded to Crowfoot’s warning with, “it’ll start getting cooler. You just watch.”
Crowfoot responded: “I wish science agreed with you”
To which President Trump said, “I don’t think science knows, actually.”
The president continued to blame poor forest management for the fires and told reporters that dry leaves need to be swept up in order to avoid the devastating wildfires.
The president has no plans to fix the climate change crisis on his re-election website, donaldjtrump.com.
Joe Biden spoke about the wildfires and other aspects of climate change, including the hurricanes hitting the gulf coast, from Wilmington, Delaware. During his speech, Biden called President Trump a “climate arsonist” and “climate denier”.
“If we have four more years of Trump’s climate denial, how many suburbs will be burned in wildfires, how many suburban neighborhoods will have been flooded out, how many suburbs will have been blown away in superstorms?” Biden asked. “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 … when more of America is underwater?”
Biden also used this time to lay out his own plan to help fix the climate crisis. According to joebiden.com, Biden’s climate plan includes: rejoining the Paris Agreement, 100% clean energy economy and reach net-zero emissions by 2050, standing up to polluters who disproportionately harm communities of color and low-income communities specifically calling on guaranteeing communities like Flint, Michigan have clean water, and creating an economy that goes hand-in-hand with a greater environment. Biden has also committed to not take any donations from any oil, gas, or coal corporations or executives.
