Biden calls Trump a 'climate arsonist' as
president denies science on wildfire tour
Democrat stresses climate crisis and pitches green
investment
Trump falsely claims climate science is still
uncertain
Emily
Holden in Washington and Daniel Strauss in Wilmington, Delaware
Mon 14 Sep
2020 21.57 BSTFirst published on Mon 14 Sep 2020 15.28 BST
The climate
crisis and record wildfires in the western US forced their way into the
presidential campaign on Monday, with Joe Biden calling Donald Trump a “climate
arsonist” and Trump falsely claiming that the planet “will start getting
cooler” and that the science is still uncertain.
The
historic fires in California, Oregon and Washington have killed at least 35,
forced tens of thousands to evacuate and subjected millions to some of the
worst air pollution in the world – yet the subject has been slow to penetrate
mainstream politics, amid the Covid-19 pandemic and a national reckoning on
racial injustice.
In a speech
in his home town, Wilmington, Delaware, on a hot afternoon on the heels of the
hemisphere’s hottest summer yet, Biden emphasized the wildfires’ connection to
the human-made climate crisis and pitched his plan to invest in green
infrastructure in order to create jobs and stimulate an economic recovery from
the pandemic.
“If we have
four more years of Trump’s climate denial, how many suburbs will be burned in
wildfires, how many suburban neighborhoods will have been flooded out, how many
suburbs will have been blown away in superstorms?” Biden asked. “If you give a
climate arsonist four more years in the White House, why would anyone be
surprised if we have more of America ablaze … when more of America is under water?”
The former
vice-president highlighted how the climate crisis is touching all Americans,
from the western fires to midwestern floods, droughts and windstorms and Gulf
coast hurricanes.
Trump
meanwhile blamed the fires on poor forest management, spoke of “exploding”
trees and disputed the science showing the world will only get hotter if fossil
fuel and other climate emissions from human activity are not steeply curtailed.
During his
visit to California, for a briefing on the wildfires and to bestow awards to
California national guard members who helped rescue campers stranded by one of
the strongest of dozens of infernos, Trump also questioned the usefulness of US
climate action.
“When you
get into climate change, well, is India going to change its ways? Is China
going to change its ways? Is Russia going to change its ways?” he told
reporters when he arrived in Sacramento. “We’re just a small speck. They make
up a big preponderance of the pollution.”
The US is
in fact the biggest historical emitter of climate pollution, although China is
currently the top emitter.
In a later
briefing, Trump interrupted an official, Wade Crowfoot, the secretary of
California’s Natural Resources Agency, to argue the climate “will start getting
cooler, you just watch”.
Crowfoot
responded: “I wish science agreed with you.”
To which
Trump retorted: “I don’t think science knows actually.”
Crowfoot
later tweeted: “It won’t actually get cooler, Mr President,” alongside a
temperature graphic.
California’s
governor, Gavin Newsom, in the briefing with Trump acknowledged a need for
better forest management but said “we come to the perspective, humbly ... that
climate change is real and that is exacerbating this”.
Trump, who
has previously denied climate change exists and downplayed its impact.
The two
men’s responses illustrate the importance of the November election in
determining the trajectory of global climate action.
If Biden
wins, the US will recommit to climate efforts, potentially encouraging deeper
action from the rest of the world. The scale and speed of Biden’s response
would depend largely on congressional politics and could be hampered by his
hesitancy to call for a rapid end to the use of fossil fuels, but he has vowed
that climate will be a top priority.
If Trump
wins, he will continue to cheerlead fossil fuels, stripping environmental
standards and helping the industry compete with clean energy.
Julien
Emile-Geay, an associate professor of earth sciences at the University of
Southern California, said: “Voters will soon have to choose between an
administration invested into denying objective information – including, but not
limited to, all the science it finds inconvenient – and a Democratic ticket
that, for all its faults, at least acknowledges this reality.
“This is
what political choice has turned to in 2020: a referendum on objective
reality.”
In his
speech, Biden said Trump “has no interest in meeting this moment. He’s already
said he wanted to withhold aid to California, to punish the people of
California. Because they didn’t vote for him. This is another crisis. Another
crisis he won’t take responsibility for. The west is literally on fire.”
The
conditions in the US are precisely those climate scientists and activists have
warned about for years. On the west coast, dozens of fires are burning. On the
Gulf coast, states are bracing for a possible second major hurricane this
season, as Hurricane Sally heads for eastern Louisiana and the Florida
panhandle.
“It’s clear
that we’re not safe in Donald Trump’s America,” Biden said. “This is Donald
Trump’s America. He’s in charge.”
Touting his
proposed legislative program, he took further shots at the president.
“When
Donald Trump thinks about climate change, he thinks hoax. When I think about
climate change I think jobs. When Donald Trump thinks about renewable energy he
sees windmills somehow as causing cancer. I see American manufacturing. When
Donald Trump thinks about LED lightbulbs, he says they’re no good, they always
make him look orange …”
Globally,
most countries are likely to miss a 2020 deadline to advance their climate
plans, the United Nations climate chief, Patricia Espinosa, told Climate Home
News. That includes China – the biggest emitter of heat-trapping climate
pollution.
A 2015
international agreement was meant to be the first step for countries to begin
to significantly limit warming. But the world is far off track. Having warmed more
than 1C since industrialization, it is now on a path toward 3C or higher.
Joan E Greve contributed reporting
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