CALIFORNIA FOCUS
FOR RELEASE: TUESDAY, OCTOBER 6, 2020, OR THEREAFTER
BY THOMAS D. ELIAS
“THERMOMETER SPEAKS OBJECTIVELY:
CLIMATE has CHANGED”
The
thermometer has spoken. 102 degrees in San Francisco in early September, a
record 121 on the same day in parts of Los Angeles, a simultaneous 130 in Death
Valley – the third highest figure ever recorded on earth and the highest
reliable reading anywhere since the 1930s.
The
thermometer’s objective message : climate change is no longer a coming
phenomenon; our climate has already changed, with more to come.
That’s
the biggest reason wildfire seasons since 2017 have been far more destructive
than any before then, the dozens of blazes destroying thousands of homes. Some
very thoroughly burned areas were never before considered prone to wildfires.
That
creates a new reality. As former Gov. Jerry Brown noted in the New York Times
the other day, you can leave California if you don’t like it. “But tell me
where you’re going to go?” he asked rhetorically. Iowa? he asked. Nope.
Tornadoes are striking Iowa and other plains states in unprecedented numbers.
Florida? Uh-uh. Can’t escape the new nature there, either, when hurricanes
arrive with unheard-of frequency and fury.
Yet,
climate change deniers persist, refusing to recognize reality and sticking to
unfounded views they’ve held since the earth’s latest changes first became
obvious to the vast majority of geologists and atmospheric scientists.
President
Trump repeated his denial kant during a mid-September stop near Sacramento,
declaring that “I don’t think science knows, actually.” He told Gov. Gavin
Newsom the remedy for wildfires is for California to clear dead trees and
leaves, not acknowledging that if anyone should remove leaves and logs, it’s
he, since the federal government owns most of California’s wild lands.
Yes,
this state always had brush and forest fires. Native American tribes living
here before Europeans arrived set preventive blazes to clear excess brush and
lower their people’s exposure to sudden crises. Modern foresters only lately
revived the ancient tactic.
This
state has always had arsonists and droughts, too, both contributors to wildfire
disasters, along with irresponsible utility companies.
Trump
expresses sympathy for fire victims, but that’s pure hypocrisy when he’s
refused since taking office to accept reality because doing so could cost some
of his supporters billions. Said Brown, “He’s presiding over a demolition derby
on our environment...” Brown spoke of Trump’s many reversals of prior federal
moves to stem greenhouse gases that push global warming, loosening many limits
on industrial and automotive pollution, plus his reversal of clean air rules
and tying the enforcement hands of the Environmental Protection Agency.
Newsom
still must see him at times to ensure federal funding and manpower aid as he
contends with the newest spate of huge blazes.
Newsom
made his frustration obvious via several things he said in the days before
meeting with Trump. “This is a climate damn emergency,” he exclaimed.
“California is in fast forward. What we’re experiencing is coming to
communities all across the country. Mother Nature is physics, biology and
chemistry. She bats last and she bats 1,000. That’s the reality. The debate is
over about climate change.”
He
spoke these things at different times, but they’re stark truths, obvious to all
who look, as Trump had the chance to do while flying past the Sierra National
Forest’s Creek Fire en route to meet Newsom.
Those
truths affect almost every person in California, not only people with burned or
threatened homes. Smoke from the fires drifted as far as Europe, turning skies
over San Francisco to strange tones of orange, making air there and in Southern
California unsafe to breathe and requiring residents to stay indoors even more
than they already were because of the coronavirus pandemic.
One
thing is certain: There will be prices to pay for the federal refusal to accept
reality, as Trump and others like the U.S. Senate’s chief climate change
denier, Republican Sen. James Inhofe of Oklahoma, may learn. They can continue
to deny climate change if they wish, but they can’t stop the thermometer.
No one yet knows what
penalties they will suffer, but the vast majority of Americans have accepted
the reality of climate change for many years. Still, they will almost certainly
suffer the penalties right along with the deniers, for there’s no escaping the
problems that denial allows to fester.
-30-
Email Thomas Elias at
tdelias@aol.com. His book, "The Burzynski Breakthrough, The Most Promising
Cancer Treatment and the Government’s Campaign to Squelch It" is now
available in a soft cover fourth edition. For more Elias columns, visit www.californiafocus.net
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