Biden Claims 'The Facts Are Undeniable' as He Blames Wildfires on Climate Change
Former Vice President Joe Biden delivered an address from Delaware on Monday connecting climate change to worsening wildfires on the West Coast.
The Democratic presidential nominee will “discuss how extreme weather events are both caused by & underscore the urgent need to tackle the climate crisis,” spokesman Matt Hill tweeted on Sunday.
MONDAY: @JoeBiden will deliver remarks on the ongoing wildfires in the west. He will discuss how extreme weather events are both caused by & underscore the urgent need to tackle the climate crisis, & why we need to create good-paying, union jobs to build a more resilient future.
— Matt Hill (@thematthill) September 13, 2020
Monday morning, Hill tweeted a thread regarding Biden’s address:
As wildfires engulf the entire west coast, remember this: we have a choice.
Donald Trump calls climate change a “hoax.” @JoeBiden will rally our country and the world to tackle the crisis, create jobs, and build a more resilient future. pic.twitter.com/tLfAdZUWH3
— Matt Hill (@thematthill) September 14, 2020
.@JoeBiden today on the wildfires and climate change >>
“The past ten years were the hottest decade ever recorded. The Arctic is literally melting. Parts are actually on fire. What we’re seeing in America — in our communities — is connected to all of this.”
— Matt Hill (@thematthill) September 14, 2020
Biden’s comments come shortly after former President Barack Obama and New York Sen. Chuck Schumer called the fires an example of how climate change can impact modern communities.
“The science is clear, and deadly signs like these are unmistakable — climate change poses an imminent, existential threat to our way of life,” Biden said in a statement Saturday, according to The Hill.
“President Trump can try to deny that reality, but the facts are undeniable.”
Wildfires in California, Oregon and Washington have killed 28 people since August, CNN reported.
More than half a million people are under some sort of evacuation alert and more than 4.5 million acres have been burned by wildfires in 12 states since August, according to NBC News.
“The lack of active land management is almost 100 percent the cause,” forest science expert Bob Zybach told The Daily Caller News Foundation in a report Sunday.
University of Washington climate scientist Cliff Mass told the DCNF in 2018, “Global warming may contribute slightly, but the key factors are mismanaged forests, years of fire suppression, increased population, people living where they should not, invasive flammable species, and the fact that California has always had fire.”
President Donald Trump has scheduled a trip to McClellan Park in Sacramento, California, in which local and federal officials will brief the president and discuss how far firefighters have come in containing the wildfires, The Washington Post reported Monday.
“I have approved 37 Stafford Act Declarations, including Fire Management Grants to support their brave work. We are with them all the way!” the president tweeted Friday.
THANK YOU to the 28,000+ Firefighters and other First Responders who are battling wildfires across California, Oregon, and Washington. I have approved 37 Stafford Act Declarations, including Fire Management Grants to support their brave work. We are with them all the way! pic.twitter.com/Uu9vArw70Z
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 12, 2020
Roughly 75 percent of damage stemming from California’s wildfires was a result of “the way we manage lands and develop our landscape,” Scott Stephens, a professor of fire science at the University of California, Berkeley, said at a conference in Washington in January, according to E&E.
“There is no reason for these massive, deadly and costly forest fires in California except that forest management is so poor,” the president tweeted in November 2018.
There is no reason for these massive, deadly and costly forest fires in California except that forest management is so poor. Billions of dollars are given each year, with so many lives lost, all because of gross mismanagement of the forests. Remedy now, or no more Fed payments!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 10, 2018
He suggested at the time that other countries do things like “raking and cleaning things, and they don’t have any problem,” citing how Finland manages forests.
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