Debating the Environment

 source: Radio-Canada

author: Sophie-Helene Lebeuf

translation: GoogleTranslate/doxa-louise

Those fires in the American West, a presidential battlefield

A firefighter works to put out the Bobcat fire in Arcadia, California.

In the past week alone, the fires have claimed at least 16 people in California.

Branded "chief arsonist" by Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden, who hammered home the climate emergency, President Donald Trump visited California on Monday, where he linked the deadly fires ravaging the West Coast of the US to poor forest management.

The dozens of blazes that continue to burn in Washington, Oregon and California have come to the forefront of the presidential campaign, highlighting another major difference between the two candidates. , this time on an environmental issue.

During a briefing with California officials in Sacramento, including Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom, the Republican president brushed aside arguments put forward by Natural Resources Secretary Wade Crowfoot, which cited the significant effects of climate change.

'It will start to cool down. You will see.'

- Donald Trump

'I would like science to agree with you' , replied his interlocutor. 'I don't think science knows, in fact ', retorted the Republican president, who did not wear a mask, unlike the vast majority of participants.

In his exchange with Governor Newsom, he had been less adamant.

President Trump, who does not wear a mask, watches Governor Gavin Newsom as he meets with officials in California who do.

President Trump attended the briefing at McClellan Park, the hub of firefighting operations in California.

Not without first thanking the president for federal help and underlining the importance of the working relationship between the state and the central government, the Democratic governor also addressed the issue.

'We have heat domes unlike any we have seen in our history' , argued Gavin Newsom. 'We are humbly of the opinion that science has spoken and the observed evidence that climate change is real and that it is exacerbating; it is evident'.

'So I think there is at least one commonality when it comes to vegetation and forest management. But please respect - and I know you do - the difference of opinion here on this fundamental question on the issue of climate change ', Mr Newsom said.

'Absolutely' , replied Mr. Trump, who has in the past called climate change a Chinese hoax .

According to scientific consensus, climate change acts as an accelerator of forest fires by increasing extreme temperatures and drought. Federal government scientists concluded two years ago that greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuel combustion could triple the frequency of severe fires in western states, reported the New York Times .

The fires, which have burned more than two million hectares, have killed at least 35 people since the start of the summer, including 27 during the week, in addition to forcing thousands of people to flee their homes.

In Oregon, more than 400,000 hectares are already gone up in smoke: it is the double of what usually burns there each year, underlined Sunday the governor Kate Brown, spesaking to CBS.

The fire season does not end in theory until November.

Trump insists on forest management

Asked by journalists as soon as he got off the plane on the role played by global warming on these fires, President Trump insisted on forest management, as he did, among others, during a partisan rally in Nevada , Saturday.

 'Forest nations like Austria and Finland do not have problems like this', he argued.

'When the trees fall down after a short period of time, about 18 months, they get really dry, they get like a matchstick, you know, there's no more water going through and they get very, very ... they simply explode, they can explode' , he said in explanation, adding that the dead leaves on the ground acted as fuel.

'They need to do something about it' , argued Donald Trump, who has repeatedly blamed the catastrophic fires in California, Oregon and Washington on the governors of the past few days. these states, all democrats.

Last month, during a partisan rally in Pennsylvania, he threatened to withhold federal aid from California if it did not pick up its [dead] leaves and torn trees .

During the meeting with the president, Gov. Newson noted in passing that only 3% of California's territory was under state responsibility, while federal forest lands made up 57% of state territory.

The Trump administration and that of Gavin Newsom have often crossed swords, especially on the fight against climate change. In September 2019, for example, President Trump announced that he was removing his state's right to set its own standards for greenhouse gas emissions from vehicles and, a few weeks later, launched a lawsuit to  invalidate an agreement on a carbon exchange between California and the Government of Quebec.

Biden denounces the inaction of his rival

Referring to the fires in the west of the country, but also the floods in the Midwest and the hurricanes along the coast of the Gulf of Mexico, Joe Biden for his part attacked the record of his opponent, blaming him for his inaction in the fight against climate change.

During his tenure, Donald Trump canceled several policies aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

'Donald Trump's climate denial may not have caused these record fires, floods and hurricanes, but if he gets a second term, these hellish events will continue to become more frequent, more devastating and deadlier' , Joe Biden emphasized .

'If we give a climate arsonist four more years in the White House, how could anyone be surprised that America is set on fire even more? If you give a climate denier four more years in the White House, why would anyone be surprised if more of America is underwater?

- Joe Biden

He also highlighted the consequences of climate change on suburban Americans, repeating for his benefit an attack by Donald Trump against him, who accuses him of wanting to destroy the way of life in the suburbs, or even the suburbs themselves.

'If we have four more years of climate denial from Trump, how many suburbs will be burned in fires? , he asked. How many suburban neighborhoods will have been flooded? How many suburbs will have been swept away by devastating storms'?

'We must act as one nation to meet this existential challenge ', he said, arguing among other things for the creation of jobs in renewable energies. 'Or we can take Donald Trump's path: ignore the facts, deny the reality, which amounts to complete surrender'.

https://ici.radio-canada.ca/nouvelle/1733742/incendies-californie-trump-visite-biden