President Donald Trump’s tweet Sunday saying California wildfires “are being magnified and made so much worse by the bad environmental laws” might have been accurate—had he stopped right there.
Instead, he went on to say something garbled about waters being diverted to the Pacific Ocean.
Water diversion isn’t behind wildfires in California. It’s not behind this summer’s fires in Oregon, Alaska, Texas, Florida and 11 other states. And it isn’t why deadly fires are blazing through Europe, scorching Greece, Portugal, and Germany.
No, the reason for the fires is a warming planet. The last three years have been the hottest on record. As the planet warms and severe droughts spread, we’re experiencing more fires, and fires of greater intensity, during longer fire seasons.
The reason we have a warming planet—and the tragic consequences that come with it—is bad environmental policy.
Trump not only pulled the U.S. out of the Paris Climate Accord, his administration is also scrapping the Clean Power Plan, which mandates the U.S. power sector to cut carbon emissions by 32 percent from 2005 to 2030. The plan would keep 870 million tons of CO2 out of the atmosphere. In its stead, Trump has proposed burning more dirty coal and other fossil fuels, and has gutted funding and research for clean energy.
We do need stronger environmental laws to limit carbon emissions and move both consumers and industry to cleaner, sustainable sources of energy as soon as possible. The California fires alone already have killed nine people. The time to act is now, before we lose another human life, home, or tree to feckless environmental policy.
**Photo: US Forest Service