Wildfires and climate change deniers: casting aside leaders who reject science
By Entian Qiu
Since August, fires have engulfed California and neighbouring states, while Donald Trump peddles dangerous disinformation.
To many Americans, it seemed like this year could not be any worse than it already was. Threats of War, Covid-19, Economic disaster and civil unrest, had all featured at some point, making 2020 look like a crossover episode of a TV series. Unfortunately, it looks like another disaster has joined the ranks of a growing pantheon of woes.
A firefighter stands among burning and fallen trees in California on September 7th. (Source:: Bloomberg, September 9th, 2020)
It seems like every few years California has a huge fire, but this year is different. The fires California is facing now are the worst fires in its history, with the 1st, 3rd, 4th, 8th, and 13th largest fires occurring between August and September, many still raging out of control. In California alone. Over 13,960 square kilometres of land has either been razed to the ground or is still burning. That's the land equivalent of just over a dozen Hong Kongs. Why have things gotten so bad?
To answer this question, first we have to understand climate change and what’s causing it. The earth is warming at an unprecedented rate, never seen at this scale before in history. This rise in temperature is clearly linked to human activity, more specifically the release of greenhouse gasses such as carbon dioxide and methane. The temperature is increasing steadily each year. Eight of the top ten hottest years on record have occurred in the 2010s and with this trend continuing, the 2020s can only be worse. Continuous hot summers have dried out land, and have fostered a perfect environment for fires. Almost all of the large-scale wildfires in California's history have occurred after the year 2000.
It's not just California’s, America’s, or even North America’s problem. Other natural and climate related disasters have scarred the planet in 2020, with numerous fires globally still continuing. Notable examples being in Australia, Brazil and even in the Arctic. Climate change doesn't only mean warming though. This causes temperatures to fluctuate and become more extreme. Simultaneous to the fires, the second most crowded Atlantic hurricane season is still ongoing and pummeling the Gulf of Mexico. The strength and number of these hurricanes are also caused by climate change with warmer waters allowing for more water to be evaporated, forming stronger storms. These extreme conditions have met in some areas and the winds and rain of the hurricanes can be visibly seen affecting the Californian smoke.
A NASA image from the 17th of September shows the true extent of the hurricane season, and smoke from the west coast drifting across the United States. Red spots indicate high temperatures, and are most likely caused by fires. These fires will only contribute to the problem. These fires are a feedback loop, with each year getting hotter and drier causing more fires, and in turn the fires are causing each year to be even hotter. (Source:: NASA, 17th of September, 2020)
What has US president Donald Trump done to calm the nation and control the situation?
He has sprouted common climate change denier talking points. Trump seems anxious to avoid any mention of climate change and when asked why the fires have gotten so bad, he responded, “I think this is more of a [fire] management situation”. Even more dangerously, he said: “It'll start getting cooler, you just watch”. This is terrifying: that the so-called leader of the free world would reject science so blatantly. Even though it isn’t untrue that the United States will get cooler over the next few months, it is misleading to say so because his supporters might misunderstand what he said and assume he meant the earth will cool in the long term. This isn’t the first time Trump has echoed this rhetoric and his policies have followed suit. In 2017, he withdrew from the Paris climate accord and in the past called climate change an “expensive hoax” and a “scam”.
Many political figures have harshly criticized Trump, with Joe Biden, the Democratic presidential candidate called him a “Climate arsonist” and the Governor of California rejected Trump's claims that “I don't think science knows” by retorting “We submit [that] the science is in and [the] observed evidence is self-evident: that climate change is real”.
Humanity needs to act quickly and decisively to stem and even reverse the dangers of climate change. Leaders that reject science must be cast out, and ones that promote decisive climate action need to be welcomed in, regardless of age, gender or race. The only way we can progress is with new ideas and technology. The most important thing to do going forward is to join a grass-root movement and pressure governments and corporations to take the very real threats seriously. How we react in the next 10 years will leave deep impacts on centuries to come.