Massachusetts Sen. Ed Markey (D) knows just who to blame for the disastrous wildfires ravaging the Los Angeles area over the past week. We have covered so many stories about the lack of long-term planning, LAFD budget cuts and the disturbing focus by the department on DEI and LBGTQ instead of firefighting, an MIA mayor, hydrants that didn’t work, reservoirs that were non-operational, and so much more, but Markey isn’t interested in those.
No, he knows what’s to blame: it's climate change. And Donald Trump.
Seriously.
Trump has been bought for $1 billion by Big Oil. Just a payoff to kill the IRA and the Green New Deal. We know what will happen. More fires, more climate disasters, more death. The LA fires are preview of coming atrocities.
— Ed Markey (@SenMarkey) January 11, 2025
Wow, is this guy for real?
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A note to Mr. Markey: Donald Trump has not been in office for four years and was not involved with the planning for California disasters, nor was he in charge of the response to them. In fact, he is still not due to be back in any official capacity until January 20, when he will mercifully be inaugurated.
It’s not the first time the Massachusetts leftist has gotten histrionic after a weather event and demanded multi-billion dollar investments in some sort of magical climate legislation:
This is what a climate emergency looks like. The climate crisis is here. We need a Green New Deal now. https://t.co/KBCjmx3Zhg
— Ed Markey (@SenMarkey) October 10, 2024
Perhaps he needs to read up on the history of hurricanes in the Sunshine State:
Approximately 500 tropical and subtropical cyclones have affected the state of Florida. More storms hit Florida than any other U.S. state,[1] and since 1851 only eighteen hurricane seasons passed without a known storm impacting the state. Collectively, cyclones that hit the region have resulted in over 10,000 deaths, most of which occurred prior to the start of hurricane hunter flights in 1943.
And while there were extremely high winds in the LA area that helped fan the current fires, it’s not as if they’re a new thing caused by my Ford Explorer.
The Golden State, long before it was even a state or even part of the USA, has been dealing with fires for millennia.
For thousands of years prior to Euro-American settlement, Native American tribes and lightning fires burned 5 million acres in California every year, with many areas burning every 10 years or so. These fires were typically more benign, burning more often but at lower intensities. The federal government's focus on fire suppression has resulted in denser forests with more continuous fuel to burn in an intense fire. These conditions are quite common around and within most communities.
Many of the most “destructive” fires have occurred in modern times—but that’s partly due to an ever-increasing population (now getting closer to 40 million people) and tens of thousands of structures that weren’t there a hundred or a thousand years ago. There was literally nothing to “destruct” in prior centuries, other than trees. Does that mean climate change hasn’t played a role? No, but it’s only one factor, and human mistakes like not clearing the brush or ensuring enough water was available have also clearly played a part.
Folks like Ed Markey add nothing useful to the conversation and merely try to get clicks by fear-mongering. Among other realities, if man-made climate change is really a thing—and experts are not in wholehearted agreement on this, despite what the corrupt corporate press will tell you—it is not something that can be solved overnight, even with a mega-buck “Green New Deal.”
The answer is to be fully prepared for events like these—and California clearly wasn’t.
