Trump Rejects Climate Change During California Wildfire Briefing

“I don’t think science knows”: Trump’s reply to climate change and the ongoing wildfires on the West Coast. 

On September 14, President Donald Trump attended a briefing in McClellan Park, California, weakly refuting official’s questions about how he can prevent the increasing wildfires and warming temperatures, ignoring the validity of science. Trump visited the Sacramento area to commend the first responders and emergency personnel who helped deal with the wildfires and the safety of Californians.

California’s secretary for natural resources, Wade Crowfoot, posed to Trump the record-breaking temperatures in Death Valley and in the greater Los Angeles area. He further states, “We want to work with you to really recognize the changing climate and what it means to our forests and actually work together with that science…That science is going to be key because if we ignore that science and sort of put our head in the sand and think it’s all about vegetation management, we’re not going to succeed in protecting Californians.”

Trump dismissed these facts by saying “It’ll start getting cooler. You just — you just watch,” to which Crowfoot replied, “I wish science agreed with you.” Trump’s finished talking on the subject by refuting “Well, I don’t think science knows, actually.”

In this briefing, Trump further continued to blame the poor forest management of California for the wildfires, rather than climate change, stating “Well, I think this is more of a management situation. If you look at other countries if you go to other countries in Europe, Austria, Finland … they’re forest nations. They’re in forests and they don’t have problems like this,” comparing U.S.A to being “just a speck.” According to an article by CNN, however, the “US is still the world’s second-largest contributor of planet-warming gases.”

Trevor Noah on The Daily Show poked fun at Trump’s refusal to accept climate change as well.

Trump’s approaches to climate change and coronavirus are the same: deny its existence, and hope it will magically disappear. pic.twitter.com/MZIuFG2Rwt

— The Daily Show (@TheDailyShow) September 16, 2020

While Trump was visiting the West Coast, Joe Biden, the current Democratic candidate for the upcoming election, took an opposing stance on climate change. He called Trump a “climate denier” and warned the public about how the climate will continue to suffer from Trump’s lack of green policies.