Trump baselessly questions climate science during California wildfire briefing (excerpt): CNN

"(CNN) President Donald Trump on Monday baselessly asserted that climate change is not playing a role in the catastrophic wildfires overtaking forests across the west, rebutting an official briefing him who pleaded for the President listen to the science.

Trump at the briefing in California. Video at CNN article

 

"I don't think science knows, actually," Trump said at a Monday briefing with officials in McClellan Park, California, with a laugh.

 

 

He told Wade Crowfoot, secretary of California's Natural Resources Agency: "It'll start getting cooler. You just watch."

 

 

Crowfoot had warned the President of the dangers of ignoring the science and putting "our head in the sand and thinking that it's all about vegetation management." 

 

 

Climate experts tell CNN due to human-caused climate change, temperature extremes are climbing higher and the vegetation is drier, which affects fire behavior.

 

 

Trump was also directly confronted by the state's Democratic governor, Gavin Newsom, who has been adamant about climate change's role in the wildfires, bluntly telling the President: "Climate change is real." 

 

 

"We obviously feel very strongly the hots are getting hotter," Newsom said. 'The dries are getting drier. When we're having heat domes, the likes of which we've never seen in our history.'  "

 

Go to complete CNN article by Maegan Vasquez

Related: Australia in January, California in August': Aussies watch on in horror as wildfires ravage US west coast (excerpt): SBS

California votes to extend cap-and-trade climate law to 2030

Greenhouse gas pollution

 "California is challenging Mr Trump's decision to scrap his predecessor's environmental policies" July 2017

 

"California legislators have voted to extend a law to cut carbon emissions, weeks after President Donald Trump said the US would withdraw from the Paris climate accord. 

The policy, which requires firms to purchase permits to release pollutants, will be extended to the year 2030.

California Governor Jerry Brown said Republicans and Democrats had taken "courageous action" with the move.
The US state aims to cut greenhouse gases by 40% from 1990 levels by 2030."


"California is the second-biggest producer of carbon dioxide through fossil fuels among US states."

Read the BBC article

Related:

BBC: climate-change-next-generation-will-bear-the-cost

CNBC: California clears final hurdle for state's landmark solar panel mandate for new homes

solar energy

• A requirement for new homes built in California starting in 2020 to include solar electric systems is now formally part of the state's building code.
•  
• It follows approval Tuesday by the California Building Standards Commission of a plan endorsed in May by a state energy panel.
•  
• California is the first state in the nation to mandate solar-energy installations on most single-family homes as well as multi-family residential buildings.

Read CNBC article 

#California  #solarenergy  #buildingcode #solarpanels #climateaction #climatechange

NYT: How Wildfires Are Making Some California Homes Uninsurable

"California’s wildfires keep growing bigger, more frequent and more destructive. Of the 20 worst wildfires in state history, four were just last year, giving rise to a record $12.6 billion of insurance claims.

It hasn’t gotten any better this year. The Mendocino Complex Fire in August was the biggest in state history, and the Camp Fire that wiped out the town of Paradise is the deadliest. It had destroyed nearly 12,000 homes as of Monday morning.

This has put pressure on property insurers, some of which have been declining to renew homeowners’ policies in fire-prone areas. When the houses that burned this year are rebuilt, their owners may find that no one is writing insurance there — at least not at affordable prices."

Nov. 20, 2018

Read the NYT article

RT America Video: Climate change causing California wildfires

'Evidence of human-caused climate change is strengthening, a new report from 13 federal agencies says. It could cost hundreds of billions of dollars from rising sea levels and infrastructure damage, among other impacts.'

NBC News Published on Nov 24, 2018

BBC: California wildfires: Why are so many listed as missing?

"Over the last few days the number of people unaccounted for in the deadly Camp Fire in northern California has skyrocketed to more than 1,200. 

The sudden jump has led to some confusion among locals and officials alike.

The confirmed death toll of 76 is already a state record, so could this huge number of missing people really still be added to that?"

Read BBC story:  

Read also Al Jazeera Story

Wildfires will be more severe and more frequent. Climate change is here.

"Wildfires - California, USA

More than 30,000 people fled for their lives Thursday as a late-season wildfire swept across this town in the Sierra foothills, incinerating numerous homes and businesses and prompting desperate rescues of residents trapped inside buildings and on clogged evacuation routes.

The blaze exploded to more than 20,000 acres, adding to a catastrophic two years of wildfires in California that have raised new questions about how the state will cope with a warmer and drier climate."

Nov 9 2018

From:

Earth Report 

See also:

ABC NEWS: Evacuations ordered as Northern California wildfire grows

 

Camp Fire Updates: Chico and Paradise wildfire evacuations, news

"Basically, we haven't had rain since last May or before that," said Read, the fire chief. Everything is a very receptive fuel bed. It's a rapid rate of spread."