(Newswire.net— September 16, 2020) — U.S. President Donald Trump categorically dismissed concerns about climate change during his visit to survey the devastation caused by the California fires, telling officials he did not think “scientists know anything about global warming,” BBC reports.
“Everything will start to cool down, just watch,” Trump said after a warning that he should not “ignore science.”
The fires, which have spread to several US states, have destroyed vast parts of the country and killed at least 36 people since early August.
Scientists have long warned that human activities have led to an increase in global temperature on our planet.
Trump, however, says that negligence and bad forest management service is to blame for the fires in the United States, fires that spread to almost two million hectares in California, Oregon, and the state of Washington.
During his visit to the West American coast, Trump, who often denies climate change, reiterated his criticism of California firefighters, who are fighting the blazing fires.
On Monday, Joe Biden, the Democratic candidate for the presidential elections in the American elections in November, called Trump a ‘climate arsonist’ who ‘won’t take responsibility’ for wildfires.
In 2018, Trump criticized the California administration, pointing to the example of Finland, which cleared forests to prevent fires.
When asked by reporters whether climate change contributes to large fires, Trump answered that many countries did not have problems with them to the extent that America had, and that the biggest problem is poor organization.
“When it comes to climate change, will India change its approach? Will China do that? Or Russia?” Trump asked.
He previously described climate changes as “mythical”, “non-existent” and an “expensive fraud”, although he also said that they were “serious”.
Trump withdrew the United States from the Paris Climate Agreement, by which the United States and 187 other countries committed themselves to keep global temperature growth two degrees Celsius below pre-industrial levels in this century.
But the irony is that the absence of the United States from the Paris Agreement is a change that will be difficult to ignore.
In the Paris Pact, China pledged to reduce its carbon dioxide emissions by 2030 at the latest. India agreed to reduce its emissions by the same year and to significantly increase its reliance on a combination of renewable energy sources.
Russia has pledged to reduce its carbon dioxide emissions by 30 percent from 1990 levels by the target.
Nine of the ten warmest years on the planet have been recorded since 2005, according to UN data.