PRESS RELEASE: Trump Sets Record Straight on California Fires, Climate Alarmism

Published November 14, 2018

ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, IL (November 13, 2018) – Global warming activists are exploiting the tragic and deadly California wildfires to push a false narrative about global warming causing more frequent and severe wildfires. President Donald Trump has stood up against this exploitation and propaganda by pointing out that environmental activist agendas and local government ineptitude are more to blame for the wildfires than global warming.

Official State of California wildfire data show the state’s wildfire frequency has dropped in half during the past 30 years of modest global warming. There has been no increasing trend in total acres burned, either. It is difficult to credibly assert that global warming is responsible for California wildfires when wildfires are currently much rarer than they used to be.

Also, National Interagency Fire Center data document there has been no increase in recent years in the number or areas burned by U.S. wildfires.

The following comments by Heartland Institute Senior Fellow James Taylor may be used for attribution:

“The likely cause of the deadly northern California wildfire appears to be PG&E’s decision not to de-electrify a power line in advance of forecasted very heavy winds. After the power line failed and a fire ensued, state and local officials provided poor warning to area residents to evacuate.”

“While Gov. Brown and his environmental extremist allies attempt to scapegoat global warming for PG&E’s lapse in judgment that likely caused such death and destruction, and state and local government officials failing to properly respond to the growing fires, President Trump is showing true leadership. While taking the necessary step of setting the record straight about bogus global warming claims, Trump has acted quickly to get relief to the people of California.

“Last night Trump issued an expedited approval of a major disaster declaration, unlocking federal resources and funding to aid California. He expressed sympathy with the victims and admiration for firefighters and first responders. And just as importantly, by threatening to withhold future grants if California officials do not come up with better land management practices, he served notice that he will not tolerate California government officials failing the people again.”

The following statement by H. Sterling Burnett, research fellow and managing editor of Heartland’s Environment & Climate News, may be used for attribution:

“For three years running, like a broken record playing the same notes over and over again, California Gov. Jerry Brown has blamed human caused climate change for the wildfires that have engulfed much of the Golden State.

By contrast, President Donald Trump’s thoughts about the cause of the wildfires currently blazing in California came, in typical Trump fashion, via tweet: ‘There is no reason for these massive, deadly and costly forest fires in California except that forest management is so poor. Billions of dollars are given each year, with so many lives lost, all because of gross mismanagement of the forests,’ tweeted Trump on November 10, following up in a second tweet on November 11. ‘With proper Forest Management, we can stop the devastation constantly going on in California. Get smart!’

“Concerning wildfires, Brown is wrong, Trump is right.”

The Heartland Institute is the world’s leading think tank promoting skepticism of human-caused, catastrophic global warming. It will be attending the United Nations’ Conference of the Parties (COP-24) in Katowice, Poland to observe and report from the scene and hold a “counter conference” with scientists. Heartland, publisher of Climate Change Reconsidered II: Fossil Fuels by the Nongovernmental International Panel on Climate Change (NIPCC), and authors/editors of the 1,000 page report will present it an event in Katowice on December 4, 2018. (More information is coming soon.)

For more information about The Heartland Institute and its plans for COP-24, please contact Director of Communications Jim Lakely at [email protected] or call/text his cell: 312-731-9364.

The Heartland Institute is a 34-year-old national nonprofit organization headquartered in Arlington Heights, Illinois. Its mission is to discover, develop, and promote free-market solutions to social and economic problems. For more information, visit our website or call 312/377-4000.