The recent California wildfires have given rise to a host of far-left activists claiming that “climate change” is at least partly responsible for the blazes and the winds that are driving them to spread. Not willing to let a good crisis go to waste, liberals are now claiming that President Trump should be impeached on the basis of “failing to combat climate change.”
Granted, the California wildfires this year are horrific. Fierce winds have spread the fire far and wide, making it difficult if not impossible for firefighters to gain the upper hand over the blazes. Nearly 200,000 people have been evacuated, schools have been shut down and tens of thousands of acres have been burned.
Despite all of this, it’s impossible to pin the blame solely on President Trump for this. There is plenty of evidence that a multitude of factors have caused the devastating fires. Scientific researchers have studied wind records dating back to the 1940s, and have been unable to find evidence of wind pattern changes that can be connected to climate change. In fact, statistics clearly show that dry, windy weather conditions occur every October in the state of California.
What is more, the fires are frequently caused by sparks from cars, faulty power lines, and discarded cigarettes, not changing weather patterns. PG&E, the state’s largest electric company, gets a fair share of the blame for failing to clear trees and modernize power lines. The fact that the state’s population is continually growing has exacerbated the problem as home construction is one the rise in rural areas that tend to catch fire fairly easily. It’s also worth noting that the common use of fire suppression in the state has allowed dense, unhealthy pines and fir trees to flourish in forested areas, providing plenty of fuel for large, disastrous blazes.
Unfortunately, most mainstream journalists have found that sensational headlines about climate change gain more attention that nuanced, accurate articles. Vox recently ran a three-part series with fictional horror stories of what “could happen” to large metropolitan areas faced with unprecedented natural disasters caused by “climate change”. Given the hype generated by the mainstream media, it’s easy to see why so many brainwashed Americans are personally blaming Trump. However, a look at how progressive Democrats want to deal with climate change makes it clear that the current president’s “failure” to deal with climate change is perhaps the best course of action.
The Green New Deal, touted by leftists as the answer to climate change, would utterly destroy the United States economy by making air and car travel prohibitively expensive, dramatically raising energy costs throughout the nation, destroying good jobs that happen to be connected to the fossil fuel industry and travel industry, and forcing homeowners to shell out large sums of money to modify homes to boost energy efficiency.
The push to impeach President Trump for his “failure to address climate change” isn’t new, but it has gained traction in the last week due to the recent California fires. It’s a ridiculous accusation given the fact that there are many non-climate change related reasons for all the natural disasters that are commonly blamed on climate change.
Blaming a sitting president for unfortunate climate events won’t prevent natural disasters any more than creating a Green New Deal would provide environmental justice and prosperity for all.
