Eric Thayer (2019, November 01). Trump Stymies California Climate Efforts Even as State Burns. Retrieved November 3, 2019, from https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/02/us/climate-change-california-fires-trump.html
President Trump has not made much progress or effort to combat climate change in California. Even as California is facing many tragic fires, Trump is still preventing the fight against climate change. Trump has vowed to help victims of the California fires and he is somewhat following up on those promises, however he still refuses to try and put an end to the root cause of them, climate change. Since his first days in office he has mocked global warming and tried to convince people that it is a hoax, pulled out of the Paris Agreement, and directed the Environmental Protection Agency to remove many of their policies that prevent global warming. There is an odd contradiction between Trumps’ willingness to help California fire victims and unwillingness to try and prevent the root cause.
After reading this article, I feel as though Trump should be taking more action against climate change and stop taking it as a joke, especially since it is directly affecting his citizens. I also agree with the author in the sense that I think it is a little weird that President Trump is so willing to aid fire victims but is neglectant towards one of the possible underlying causes of the fires, climate change. I think he has been presented with ways to possibly help the urgent issue of global warming, however, he has continuously shot them down to focus on other issues, however I think that he needs to revisit the topic of climate change, given that it is such an immediate issue that may very well have permanent effects. Overall, this article is concerning and given that I live in California, an area very affected by fires, I wish that the issue would be treated with a sense of urgency.
I completely agree that this is all “concerning”. I think part of the issue is Trump doesn’t see climate change as something that is a part of the cause of our fires. He thinks it is forest mismanagement. And the latest I heard is he is backing out of providing federal assistance to fire victims. Crazy times… and as you put it, there are lots of contradictions happening.
Do you think CA can be a force to battle climate change without the support of the White House?
Thanks for the question. I think that California can take big steps towards fighting climate change, however, I do think the White House is necessary to make any drastic changes because in order to really make a difference more than just California has to be on board and that is hard to do without the support of the White House.
This article was interesting because I agree with you that it certainly
concerns me on how we live in California where so many areas are affected by fires and how it doesn’t get much attention. I also think we need to take in consideration that we can’t take climate change as a joke, it’s a serious issue and it’s affecting everyone.