On a per capita basis, California’s gross domestic product is greater than the economies of the U.S., China, Germany, and Japan. Setting aside per capita comparisons and measuring productivity in hard dollars, California’s state economy ranks fifth in the world, just behind the national economies of those four countries. Home to 39 million people, California is also the most populous state in the U.S.
Given these facts, California’s fire devastation will ripple through the entire nation, and may be the most expensive natural disaster in U.S. history.
As 40,000 acres burn, animals are incinerated alive and the human death toll rises, only a psychopath would look for advantage.
Trump twists the knife
Kicking and confusing terrified people in their hour of need, President-elect Donald Trump continues to spread disinformation about the fires, seeking to gain from the
tragedy by pinning it on Democratic governance instead of facts or science.
Trump is braying to half of the nation that California Governor Gavin Newsom “doesn’t care about the people of California. Now the ultimate price is being paid. I will demand that this incompetent governor allow beautiful, clean, fresh water to FLOW INTO CALIFORNIA! He is the blame for this. On top of it all, no water for fire hydrants, not firefighting planes. A true disaster!”
Trump’s disinformation runs the gamut from the ridiculous to the petty. Delivered just when the country should come to California’s aid, it is a sinister ploy meant to draw public attention away from Republicans’ long-running climate science denial.
Climate scientists warned us for years
Mainstream media is finally reporting that the L.A. fires, like the catastrophic wildfires that flattened Maui last year, are the largely product of climate change. Climate scientists have been warning us for decades that floods, wildfires, hurricanes and tornadoes would become more destructive due to climate change. Scientists have told
Trump and GOP lawmakers repeatedly that trapped heat in the atmosphere will intensify disasters everywhere, making them more aggressive, more destructive, and more deadly, even as they become more frequent.
Trump and Republicans, with few exceptions, have consistently rebuked climate science and instead worked to accelerate climate change by increasing reliance on fossil fuels. Taking aim at President Joe Biden’s 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, Trump’s Project 2025 proposes to erase clean energy programs from the federal government entirely while boosting the production of fossil fuels.
Republicans have fought for decades to discredit climate science in order to support their fossil fuel donors, and “Drill, Baby, Drill” Trump is determined to erase what little
progress has been made. Trump’s nominee to head the EPA, former New York Rep. Lee Zeldin, is vowing to fight climate progress and “roll back regulations” that protect the environment and limit carbon emissions, while former North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, Trump’s nominee to head the Department of Interior, is vowing to increase oil drilling on public lands.
Politicians like Trump who are financed by coal, oil, and gas-backed campaign donations will fight to protect those industries as long as corporations are allowed to fund political campaigns under Citizens United. It’s a long-running and dangerous symbiosis that is now approaching the tipping point.
Those lying about climate science, have blood on their hands
The fossil fuel industry’s well-funded campaign to spread disinformation about the role of fossil fuels in causing rising temperatures is well-documented; it has been even more effective than tobacco’s misinformation campaign. Several years ago, at a hearing on ‘Exposing Big Oil’s Disinformation Campaign to Prevent Climate Action,’ the House Committee on Oversight reported:
“The fossil fuel industry has had scientific evidence about the dangers of climate change since at least 1977. Yet for decades, big oil spread denial and doubt about the harm of its products, undermining the science and preventing meaningful action on climate change even as the global climate crisis became increasingly dire, and its deadly impact on Americans increased.”
Fox News, controlled by Rupert Murdoch, echoes Republicans’ denial of climate science because Murdoch is heavily invested in big oil. Fox has, predictably, jumped in
to blame Democrats, not climate science, for the L.A. disaster. Fox News host Jesse Watters is calling for Trump to take over the state while ignoring climate change. “This
is biblical-level destruction… A full federal takeover is needed. Invoke the Stafford Act. The state’s overwhelmed. Martial law might have to be declared.”
Newsom won’t take the bait
Thankfully, Newsom refuses to respond in kind.
Over the weekend, Governor Newsom invited Trump to see the destruction instead of braying about it, adding, “We must not politicize human tragedy or spread disinformation from the sidelines. Hundreds of thousands of Americans — displaced from their homes and fearful for the future — deserve to see all of us working in their best interests to ensure a fast recovery and rebuilt.”
Trump has not yet responded to Newsom’s invitation. Meanwhile, at Trump’s behest, Republicans are now talking about tying FEMA relief to other, unrelated political wish list items like the debt ceiling, and Fox News is, again, doing their bidding. It’s particularly galling, given that Democrats have never threatened disaster funding, say, in Florida where taxpayers keep bailing out developments that build and rebuild in the same high hurricane-risk locations.
As Republicans continue to deny climate science and politicize the fires instead of tackling climate change, no one should be surprised when Trump tries to block FEMA relief funds to Democratic-run cities and states, as he did in 2018, delaying the approval of federal aid relief for California until he was shown voter registration data proving that Republicans vote in Orange County too.
At some point, despite Fox News’ best efforts to lie and spin, voters in red states will eventually connect the GOP’s refusal to address climate change to their burning or
flooded homes. In the meantime, given that California is ranked 49th among the states for the amount of money it receives from the federal government compared to the
amount it pays in, which means it gets an extremely low return on investment, we also should not be surprised if California seriously considers Canada’s offer and formalizes a plan to secede.
Sabrina Haake is a columnist and 25-year litigator specializing in 1st and 14th Amendment defense. Her Substack, the Haake Take, is free.
