When he landed this Monday at an airport in Sacramento, California, President Trump was able to verify in the air the acrid smell of forest fires that, about 90 miles from the place, have been hitting this and others on the West Coast for weeks, where dozens people have died, are still missing or have lost their homes in the flames.
However, despite the scientific consensus that climate change is playing a central role in the fires, the president renewed his unfounded claim that poor forest management in the states is the main responsible for the severe crisis.
Trump traveled to Northern California to be informed by Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom and other state and federal officials of the current situation.
During the meeting, the secretary of the State Agency for Natural Resources, Wade Crowfoot,
urged the president to "recognize climate change
and what it means for our forests."
[Satellite images show the destruction caused by the fires on the West Coast]
"If we ignore that science and put our heads in the sand and think it's all about the way vegetation is managed, we are not going to be successful in protecting Californians," Crowfoot added.
But Trump responded:
"(The weather) will start to cool down, just watch."
President Trump listens to California Governor Gavin Newsom during a meeting in that state on the wildfire crisis.
AP
Crowfoot politely rejected that he wanted science to agree with the president.
And the president replied:
"I don't think science really knows."
The fires threaten to become another front in Trump's re-election bid, already facing hurdles due to the coronavirus pandemic, unemployment and protests over police and racial violence.
Trump made the visit to California at a stop on the way to Phoenix, where he is heading for campaign purposes.
The president has been mostly silent during the catastrophe on the West Coast in recent weeks.
On Friday, he tweeted his thanks to firefighters and emergency personnel.
Those were his first public comments in weeks on the fires
, which have consumed millions of acres and left a toxic haze over large cities.
Trump has denied climate change since before occupying the White House.
In 2015, he stated bluntly: "I don't believe in global warming, I don't believe in man-made global warming."
Trump blames governors for managing forests
On Monday, he said again that Democratic state leaders, where the fires are developing, are to blame for not raking leaves and removing dead wood from forests.
However, the flames have not only consumed the forests, they have also devastated the coastal chaparral and grasslands.
"When you have years of leaves, dry leaves on the ground, that just fuels it," Trump said.
Wildfires leave Seattle covered in toxic haze
Sept.
13,202000: 20
“It is really fuel for a fire.
So they have to do something about it. "
In August, Trump told California authorities during the great heat wave: "Clean your floors."
"I keep telling you: it's a question of forest management," Trump reiterated this Sunday at an electoral event with Latinos in Nevada.
"It is a matter of managing their forests," he added.
University of Colorado fire scientist Jennifer Balch called Trump's deflection of blame on forest managers "infuriating."
"It is often difficult to know what Trump means," Balch added.
"If by forest management you mean clearcutting, that is the absolutely wrong solution to this problem."
The president
has aggressively promoted fossil fuels
, the burning of which is seen as one of the main drivers of climate change.
The undeniable impact of climate change
The governors of California, Oregon and Washington, three Democrats, argue that climate change is the main cause of the fires being so severe, an idea that
has the support of scientists
.
Multiple investigations have shown that there is a relationship between global warming caused by human activities,
particularly the burning of fossil fuels
, and recent large fires in the United States.
There are also published by the Government itself.
A Latino family mourns the loss of their own mobile home to a wildfire last week in Talent, Oregon. AP / AP
The West Coast experienced heat waves with record temperatures in recent weeks. "This should not come as a surprise to anyone," said Michael Gerrard, a researcher at Colombia University, in reference to the fires, in statements to the Los Angeles Times.
"What we've been seeing in California is some of the clearest events where we can say that this is climate change," insisted Zeke Hausfather, a climate scientist at the Breakthrough Institute, a private research center based in Oakland.
Gavin Newsom, Kate Brown and Jay Inslee, governors of California, Oregon and Washington respectively, have delivered
strong messages
in recent days
to support the idea
that climate change is the main cause of such devastating fires.
[This Latina helps people shelter from the flames]
"The debate around climate change is over," Newsom told reporters on Friday.
"Just come to the state of California, and see it with your own eyes," she added.
Firefighters work to save a home from flames in Butte County, Northern California.
AP
"This is a wake-up call for all of us that we have to do everything in our power to tackle climate change," Brown told CBS.
For Inslee, climate change is a "blowtorch on our states in the West," as he said in a program on ABC.
With information from AP, The New York Times, CNN, LA Times.
/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/prisa/A3CIAJJPYZJHVDEJJ5NWRRSTFM.jpg)
