Golf cart remains burned by the Glass Fire sit next to a vineyard at Calistoga Ranch in Napa Valley, California on September 30, 2020. Samuel Corum / AFP / Getty Images
The Trump administration rejected California's federal relief request to help recover from six recent wildfires, The Los Angeles Times reported.
<p>California Governor Gavin Newsom's office requested a presidential disaster declaration for federal relief funds to help with cleanup efforts, including the Creek Fire, the largest in the state's history, <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/10/15/politics/trump-california-fire-disaster-assistance/index.html" target="_blank">CNN</a> reported. The relief would have also assisted recovery efforts from the Bobcat Fire in Los Angeles County and the El Dorado Fire, which resulted from a <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/california-wildfire-gender-reveal-partyty-2647518193.html" target="_self">gender-reveal party mishap</a>.</p><p>"The request for a Major Presidential Disaster Declaration for early September fires has been denied by the federal administration," Brian Ferguson, a spokesperson for the Governor's Office of Emergency Services told CNN. </p><p>Ferguson told the The Los Angeles Times that he could not provide a reason for the denial.</p>
<p><br>Newsom wrote a letter to President Trump on September 28 asking for federal assistance, during which time the August Complex Fire continued to grow; it has since <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/california-gigafire-august-complex-2648125953.html" target="_self">burned more than one million acres</a>. </p><p>"The severity and magnitude of these fires continue to cause significant impacts to the State and to the affected local jurisdictions, such that the recovery efforts remain beyond the State's capabilities," <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/US/trump-administration-rejects-californias-request-wildfire-disaster-assistance/story?id=73650086" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">ABC News</a> reported Newsom wrote in September. "Many of the counties impacted by these wildfires are still recovering from previous devastating wildfires, storms, and the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic."</p><p>The state plans to appeal the decision. In the meantime, "officials are looking for other avenues for federal assistance" to help wildfire victims, a spokesperson for the California Governor's Office of Emergency Services told ABC News.</p>
<p>The state did not request a specific dollar amount, though Newsom did ballpark the figure around $346 million, ABC News reported. Ferguson, however, said the figure could easily pass that number.</p><p>"The true cost won't be known for months or years afterward," Ferguson told The Los Angeles Times. "What the state is looking for is the highest level of federal support, which requires the highest bars be cleared. But we feel our case for those requirements has been met."</p><p>In his letter, Newsom emphasized the state's dire need. "Federal assistance is critical to support physical and economic recovery of California and its communities," ABC News reported. "The longer it takes for California and its communities to recover, the more severe, devastating, and irreversible the economic impacts will be."</p>
<p>The rejected request is not entirely surprising. In a pattern of disdain toward Democratic states, Trump said in 2019 that he would deny federal assistance requests unless state officials "get their act together, which is unlikely," The Los Angeles Times reported. Trump has also blamed Newsom for the fires, ABC News reported, claiming that Newsom has done a terrible job managing forests — even though a majority of California forests are on federal land.</p><p>So far in 2020, more than 8,500 wildfires have burned over 4.1 million acres. The fires have also killed 31 people and damaged more than 9,200 structures, CNN reported.</p>
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The Glass Fire burns on a mountainside with the Beckstoffer Vinyards in the foreground on Sept. 28, 2020 in St. Helena, Californai. Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images
By Kenny Stancil
As the climate crisis fuels devastating wildfires across the western United States and melts Arctic sea ice at an alarming rate, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced Wednesday that Earth just experienced the hottest September on record and that 2020 is on pace to be one of the three hottest years on the books.
<p><a href="https://www.noaa.gov/news/earth-just-had-its-hottest-september-on-record" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">According to</a> NOAA, "the 10 warmest Septembers have all occurred since 2005, with the seven warmest Septembers occurring in the last seven years."</p><p>"We've broken the climate system," tweeted meteorologist Eric Holthaus. "We are in a climate emergency."</p>
<p>NOAA <a href="https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/sotc/global/202009/supplemental/page-2" target="_blank">found</a> that 2020 has a 65% chance of beating out 2016 as the warmest year on record, a 35% chance of being the second-warmest ever, and will almost certainly rank in the top three.</p><p>Climate scientists emphasized that this year's record-setting temperatures have been accompanied by an unprecedented wave of <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/extreme-weather">extreme weather</a> events. A <a href="https://www.undrr.org/publication/human-cost-disasters-overview-last-20-years-2000-2019" target="_blank">report</a> published Tuesday by the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction examined the "staggering" increase in climate-related disasters, which doubled from 3,656 between 1980 and 1999 to 6,681 between 2000 and 2019, as Common Dreams <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/10/13/uninhabitable-hell-millions-un-report-sounds-alarm-humanitys-continued-destruction" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">reported</a>. </p>
<img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNDUyMzM4My9vcmlnaW4ucG5nIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY1NDUzMTg0OH0.rbCjdegltKGIl4s67tRVN9oy5BzfGCgrV2YFQHTmbCc/img.png?width=980" id="c59fd" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="14b10059877082736fc58eae8cd9a837" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
<p>Researchers at Yale <a href="https://yaleclimateconnections.org/2020/10/september-2020-was-warmest-september-on-record-noaa-reports/" target="_blank">found</a> that eight weather-related disasters causing $1 billion or more in damage occurred across the world in September alone, bringing the annual total thus far to 35. There were 40 such events in both 2018 and 2019.</p><p>With 16 extreme weather events so far in 2020, the U.S. has already tied its record for most billion-dollar weather disasters in a single year. </p>
<img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNDUyMzM5MS9vcmlnaW4ucG5nIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYzNTE4MDgxOH0.NdmxdhaKwzDvkn784hESu2ZA4P5NNIDvthK11NopCZ8/img.png?width=980" id="3a4e7" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="dc302971d3a01053e3841558a704bfbe" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
<p>NOAA's findings echo a European Union study published one week ago. As Common Dreams <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/10/07/scientists-warn-2020-pace-become-hottest-year-ever-september-heat-smashes-previous" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">reported</a>, one of the EU climate scientists who contributed to the analysis noted that the planet "will carry on warming if greenhouse gas emissions continue at the rate they are at the moment."</p><p>"It is baffling that we willingly and knowingly continue to sow the seeds of our own destruction," the U.N. report stated, "despite the science and evidence that we are turning our only home into an uninhabitable hell for millions of people."</p>
<p><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/10/14/planet-earth-says-noaa-just-had-its-hottest-september-record" target="_blank">Common Dreams</a>.</em></p>From Your Site Articles
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Heavy Smoke rises from the Cameron Peak fire as it continues to burn on Oct. 5, 2020 in Larimer County near Fort Collins, Colorado. Helen H. Richardson / MediaNews Group / The Denver Post via Getty Images
For the second time this year, Colorado is battling the largest wildfire in state history.
<p>Strong winds pushed the Cameron Peak fire 17 miles to the east Tuesday and Wednesday, <a href="https://wildfiretoday.com/2020/10/14/strong-winds-push-cameron-peak-fire-east-prompting-more-evacuations/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Wildfire Today reported</a>. It burned more than 20,000 acres in a single day, swelling to 158,300 acres by 7:30 p.m. Wednesday and placing at least nine new areas under evacuation orders, the <a href="https://eu.coloradoan.com/story/news/2020/10/14/largest-wildfire-colorado-history-cameron-peak-fire/3659545001/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Fort Collins Coloradoan reported</a>.</p>
<div id="76933" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="7d898cedb438dfd8534d4f496549ca2b"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1316578050574897153" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">Here is the #CameronPeakFire map created with data from the multi mission aircraft (MMA) flight earlier today. Th… https://t.co/PQanYpzbyT</div> — Canyon Lakes Ranger RD (@Canyon Lakes Ranger RD)<a href="https://twitter.com/usfsclrd/statuses/1316578050574897153">1602731642.0</a></blockquote></div>
<img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNDUyMDA2OS9vcmlnaW4ucG5nIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY1MDk2MjgxMX0.kIfbtaRMKrM71wvz48H6dVC8P4GP5U0buEVJr3V3Vbo/img.png?width=980" id="89059" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="4833a1292ec73bbdc9abcc80faf7ed51" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
<p>"This really was almost an epic day for doing evacuations and again, for everybody that's been moved, I know it's extremely difficult," officials said Wednesday night, as <a href="https://denver.cbslocal.com/2020/10/14/cameron-peak-fire-largest-wildfire-colorado-history/" target="_blank">CBS4 Denver reported</a>. "We do know that we lost structures today and for anybody who is impacted, you know, our heart goes out to you."<br></p><p>One family lost two cabins they owned in the Buckhorn Canyon area.</p><p>"The materials is one thing," Parker Hutchinson told CBS4 Denver. "But the amount of family heirlooms and just the memories of that area, they've been burned."</p><p>Despite these individual tragedies, Larimer County Sheriff Justin Smith said the day could have been even worse.</p><p>"We have no reported injuries, no deaths, a lot fewer structures were impacted that we truly anticipated based on what we saw with that said, there's certainly a lot of folks that got hit," he said, as <a href="https://www.cpr.org/2020/10/14/cameron-peak-fire-spreads-quickly-into-more-populated-areas/" target="_blank">Colorado Public Radio reported</a>.</p>
<div id="f67b3" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="ab50c11f23a7fdd3176e6fc537d96ed2"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1316443792988352522" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">Time lapse sent by a colleague (with permission to share), taken near the mouth of the Big Thompson canyon… https://t.co/phRPfP4sAs</div> — Russ Schumacher (@Russ Schumacher)<a href="https://twitter.com/russ_schumacher/statuses/1316443792988352522">1602699633.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p>The Cameron Peak fire has been burning since Aug. 13 in the Arapahoe and Roosevelt National Forest. It has persisted despite a snowstorm in early September and more snow on Sunday, fueled by high winds and <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/drought" target="_self">drought</a>. It had already destroyed or damaged 99 structures before exploding Tuesday, and officials said conditions were still too dangerous to assess the total number of buildings impacted in the last 24 hours. It is now 56 percent contained and more than 1,000 people are fighting it.</p><p>The fire is burning to the west of Fort Collins, but Smith said he did not think the flames would reach that more populous area or the nearby city of Loveland because they are protected by bodies of water and a lack of the heavy timber that feeds the flames.</p><p>The two largest fires in Colorado history both ignited this year. The Cameron Peak fire unseated the Pine Gulch fire, which burned 139,007 acres over the summer and held the record for only 48 days.</p>
<p>The ten largest fires in Colorado history all took place in the last 20 years, and seven took place in the last 10, according to figures reported by the Fort Collins Coloradoan.</p><p>As of August, 2020 was Colorado's third driest year on record and twelfth warmest, according to <a href="https://www.cpr.org/2020/08/20/colorado-wildfires-climate-change-drought-snowpack/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Colorado Public Radio</a>. Almost a fourth of the state is experiencing extreme drought. These fire-fueling conditions are in line with what scientists say the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/climate-change/" target="_self">climate crisis</a> will do to the state.</p><p>"What we're seeing here is indicative of the fact that when the hot, dry years come around, they're hotter than most of the time when they've occurred in the past," state climatologist Russ Schumacher told Colorado Public Radio. "And that's pretty well in line with what climate projections have been saying for some time."</p>
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'Uninhabitable Hell:' UN Report Warns of Planet's Future for Millions Without Climate Action
13 October
Climate
A UN report, The Human Cost of Disasters 2000-2019, was released to mark the International Day for Disaster Risk Reduction. Colin Anderson Productions pty ltd / Stone / Getty Images
A new report from the United Nations found that political leaders and industry leaders are failing to do the necessary work to stop the world from becoming an "uninhabitable hell" for millions of people as the climate crisis continues and natural disasters become more frequent, as Al-Jazeera reported.
<p><a href="https://www.undrr.org/publication/human-cost-disasters-overview-last-20-years-2000-2019" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">The Human Cost of Disasters 2000-2019</a> was released Monday to mark the International Day for Disaster Risk Reduction, which falls on Oct. 13, according to a <a href="https://www.undrr.org/publication/human-cost-disasters-overview-last-20-years-2000-2019" target="_blank">statement</a> from the office behind the report.</p><p>The bulk of the disasters were climate-related, as there were sharp increases in the number of floods, storms, heat waves, droughts, hurricanes and wildfires in the last two decades, according to <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/10/13/world/un-natural-disasters-climate-intl-hnk/index.html" target="_blank">CNN</a>.</p><p>The report found that the world is on a worrying trend line as natural disasters become more frequent and more expensive. In the last 20 years, there were more than 7,300 natural disasters worldwide, accounting for nearly $3 trillion in damages. That's almost double the prior two decades when there were just over 4,200 natural disasters that totaled $1.6 trillion in economic losses, according to the statement.</p>
<p>"It is baffling that we willingly and knowingly continue to sow the seeds of our own destruction," said UNDRR chief Mami Mizutori and Debarati Guha-Sapir of Belgium's Center for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters, in a joint foreword to the report, as CNN reported.</p><p>"It really is all about governance if we want to deliver this planet from the scourge of poverty, further loss of species and <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/biodiversity">biodiversity</a>, the explosion of urban risk and the worst consequences of global warming."</p>
<p>The report said that the future would be full of more climate-related disasters as the planet warms up and heat-trapping gases are continuously emitted into the atmosphere. The researchers said the greatest threats in the coming decades would come from heat waves and droughts, as <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/environment-disasters-un/sharp-rise-in-natural-disasters-in-last-20-years-asia-hardest-hit-u-n-idUSKBN26X1HG" target="_blank">Reuters</a> reported.</p><p>Asia saw the bulk of the natural disasters over the last 20 years. China had the largest number of disasters with 57, followed by India, the Philippines and Indonesia. The only country outside of Asia to crack the top 5 was the U.S, which ranked second with 467 natural disasters from 2000 to 2019, according to the paper, as Reuters reported.</p><p>"If this level of growth in extreme weather events continues over the next twenty years, the future of mankind looks very bleak indeed," said Guha-Sapir, according to Reuters. "Heatwaves are going to be our biggest challenge in the next 10 years, especially in the poor countries."</p>
<p>In a virtual briefing to announce the release of the report, Mizutori said the world must act swiftly and decisively to invest in disaster reduction, climate crisis adaptation, and prevention. She asked that political leaders around the world reaffirm their commitment to the 2015 <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/paris-agreement">Paris agreement</a> and turn their attention to zero-emissions infrastructure, as Al-Jazeera reported.</p><p>The report said that the world's current trajectory that has us heading towards a 3.2-degree Celsius increase in temperature will trigger such extreme climate disasters that the improvements to disaster response will be rendered "obsolete in many countries," as CNN reported.</p><p>"We have seen little progress on reducing climate disruption and environmental degradation," said UN Secretary-General António Guterres in an <a href="https://www.un.org/en/observances/disaster-reduction-day/messages" target="_blank">International Disaster Day message</a>, as CNN reported. "To eradicate poverty and reduce the impacts of climate change, we must place the public good above all other considerations."</p>
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The remains of a home near a beach destroyed by Hurricane Michael on May 9, 2019 in Mexico Beach, Florida. Scott Olson / Getty Images
As the Gulf states get pummeled by intense hurricanes and California burns in record-breaking wildfires, many in regions like these have contemplated moving to places projected to fare better in the face of the climate crisis. The ability to work from home, indefinitely for some, has also inspired interest in relocation away from expensive cities like San Francisco and New York that are vulnerable to climate disasters, reported SF Gate.
<p>"We lived in Oakland where we owned a home for over 20 years. The natural and man-made disasters got to be too much for us," Rita Liberati explained to SF Gate after her move to central New York. "My partner is retired, but my employer gave the OK for me to work remotely for which I'm grateful."</p><p>A closer look, though, reveals a disheartening answer to the question of where can you move to be safe from the effects of the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/climate-change/" target="_self">climate crisis</a>. Hint: it's basically nowhere.</p>
<p>In a "Dear Abby" style advice column tackling that exact question, <a href="https://grist.org/article/lets-say-i-wanted-to-escape-climate-change-where-should-i-go/" target="_blank">Grist</a> called the impulse to flee to avoid climate disruptions "reasonable" because "climate change rivals nuclear war for the greatest threat to human life in the history of our species' existence. Every survival instinct we've cultivated to date should, understandably, make us want to get away from it."</p><p>According to <a href="https://www.fastcompany.com/90288934/how-soon-will-climate-change-force-you-to-move" target="_blank">Fast Company</a>, the risk is not the same everywhere, and some places will suffer more extreme impacts from the climate crisis. Miami, for example, already floods with high tides. By 2060, 60% of the city will suffer chronic flooding; by 2100, that number jumps to 90%, Fast Company reported. In Alaska, some residents have already been forced to relocate because melting permafrost and erosion have caused parts of their village to wash away into the sea, reported <a href="https://yaleclimateconnections.org/2019/12/where-should-i-move-to-be-safe-from-climate-change/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Yale Climate Connections</a>.</p>
<p>Jesse Keenan, a Harvard climate adaptation specialist, suggested the Upper Midwest and parts of Minnesota as more comfortable locales in the face of the climate crisis because they are rural, wooded, Northern and stocked with fresh water, the Grist reported. Keenan quickly followed up saying that if everyone moved there, those "climate strongholds" would be quickly overrun and overtaxed. Another <a href="https://grist.org/article/we-broke-down-what-climate-change-will-do-region-by-region/" target="_blank">Grist</a> article also noted that those regions would suffer crop diseases, pests and algal blooms in the Great Lakes because of climate change.</p><p>Dave Anderson bought a 70-acre ranch in Oregon as a "Plan B" escape property for his family if their homes in Houston ever became uninhabitable, reported the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/30/realestate/climate-change-insurance-buy-land-somewhere-else.html" target="_blank">New York Times</a>.</p><p>I'm no doomsday prepper," he told the Times. "That said, we intentionally purchased a relatively remote property well above sea level, with ample water and wildlife, with the expectation that the property would survive for generations of family use."</p><p>While his property sounds relatively safe, according to Grist, Oregon itself is under a consistent threat of wildfires, scarce fresh water sources, and big earthquakes.</p><p>"There's nowhere you can hide. I think you need to come to terms with what you think you're running from," Keenan told Grist.</p>
<p>Tellingly, the second Grist article broke down what climate change is predicted to change in the U.S. region by region and found no place was fully "safe." From more extremely hot nights and invasive lionfish in the Southeast, to worse storms and dwindling freshwater supplies in Hawaii and Puerto Rico, to more fires and droughts along the entire West Coast, the picture is bleak in different degrees and different ways anywhere you look, the report said.</p><p>Inequity also is a complicating concern, with many people "too poor to move," Keenan told Fast Company. "Climate change is going to make the problem much more profound. What I'm concerned with … is not necessarily where people are going to move, but who's going to be trapped."</p>
<p>Fast Company and Yale also noted the difficulties with relocating — finding a new sense of community, social circles and rootedness, all of which are "survival mechanisms" that help in the face of emergencies like climate disasters.</p><p>Instead of the somewhat futile effort to escape climate change by moving, some experts are advocating instead for increased investments in climate resilience where people already live, Yale reported. The news report also listed resources for U.S.-based readers to look up everything from how many increased hot days a region will experience to how climate change will affect air quality, and suggested getting involved with local resiliency planning.</p><p>"So before you pack your bags, first make sure you understand the expected consequences of climate change where you live now. Do those risks outweigh the cost of leaving behind friends, neighbors, family, and professional contacts?" the report queried.</p>
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Senator Kamala Harris and Vice President Mike Pence participate in the vice presidential debate in Salt Lake City, Utah on Oct. 9, 2020. PBS NewsHour / YouTube
The climate crisis was discussed for roughly 10 minutes at Wednesday night's vice-presidential debate in Salt Lake City, Utah between Senator Kamala Harris and Vice President Mike Pence.
<p>The first question about the climate crisis came about 40 minutes into the debate when moderator Susan Page turned to Pence and brought up the record number of <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/hurricanes" target="_self">hurricanes</a> and <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/wildfires" target="_self">wildfires</a> in 2020. She then asked if he agreed with the scientific consensus that man-made climate change is making hurricanes and fires larger and more dangerous.</p><p>Pence did acknowledge that the climate is changing, but he would not say that human activity is causing it. He insisted that the <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/trump-watch/" target="_self">Trump</a> administration would listen to the science before pivoting to attack both the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/paris-agreement" target="_self">Paris agreement</a> and the Green New Deal.</p><p>In her reply, Harris insisted that Joe Biden believes in <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/science/">science</a>. She drew a contrast with President Trump who has questioned science.</p><p>"We have seen a pattern with this administration, which is they don't believe in science," Harris said while looking straight at the camera.</p><p>She brought up that when Trump met with California Gov. Gavin Newsom in September, Trump said about global warming, "I don't think science knows, actually," as <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/trump-california-biden-climate-science-2647658093.html">EcoWatch</a> reported at the time.</p>
<p>Pence argued that the country has lowered CO2 emissions through hydraulic fracturing, or <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/fracking/">fracking</a>, and through innovation. Pence then claimed that Biden and Harris wanted to ban fracking.</p><p>"I will repeat, and the American people know, that Joe Biden will not ban fracking," Harris said in her reply. "That is a fact."</p><p>The issue of fracking is something Pence glommed on to in what analysts see as a direct plea to voters in Pennsylvania where the oil and natural gas industry is prominent, as <a href="https://time.com/5897789/vp-debate-climate-change/" target="_blank">TIME</a> reported.</p><p>Harris, in her rebuttal, noted that clean energy infrastructure is actually part and parcel of an economic recovery, pointing out that Moody's said Biden's plan will create 7 million more jobs than Trump's plan.</p><p>"Joe Biden has been very clear that he thinks about growing jobs," she said. "Part of those jobs that will be created by Joe Biden are going to be about clean energy and <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/renewable-energy/">renewable energy</a>."</p>
<p>Pence also refused to attribute the wildfires and the increased moisture and slow movements of hurricanes to human activity. As the moderator attempted to enforce Pence's time limit, he argued that there are no more hurricanes than there were 100 years ago. Prior to that, he addressed the wildfires.</p><p>"With regard to wildfires, President Trump and I believe that forest management has to be front and center, and even Gov. Gavin Newsom from your state has agreed, we have to work on forest management," Pence said.</p><p>He neglected to mention that nearly 60 percent of California's forests are on federal land, as <a href="https://abc7news.com/politics/sen-kamala-harris-vp-mike-pence-spar-on-california-wildfires-during-debate/6854295/" target="_blank">KGO</a>, San Francisco's ABC affiliate, reported.</p><p>When Harris replied, she brought up the wildfires currently burning, the plight of the Gulf Coast as Hurricane Delta approaches, and the Iowa farmers whose fields were flooded by a <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/derecho-storm-midwest-2646947250.html" target="_self">derecho storm</a>.</p><p>She segued from there to attack the Trump administration's hostile attitude towards science, noting that the terms "science" and "climate change" were removed from a government website about energy and the environment.</p><p>"Let's talk about who is prepared to lead our country over the course of the next four years on what is an existential threat to us as human beings," she emphasized.</p><p>When asked directly by Page if the climate crisis is an existential threat, Pence dodged the question and started to discuss taxes.</p>
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The August Complex Fire in California has now burned more than 1 million acres. Pacific Southwest Forest Service, USDA / CC BY 2.0
The August Complex Fire in California has now burned more than 1 million acres, making the fire the state's first gigafire. For context, that means the Northern California inferno has now burned an area larger than the entire state of Rhode Island, as Vox reported.
<p>An <a href="https://www.fire.ca.gov/incidents/2020/8/16/august-complex-includes-doe-fire/" target="_blank">update</a> on the fire posted Tuesday night by the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CAL FIRE) said the August Complex Fire has burned for 51 days, touched seven counties, and is 60 percent contained. It has consumed 1,008,590 acres.</p><p>The announcement that California now has the first gigafire on record came on the heels of the state announcing that this year's <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/wildfires">fires</a> have set new records by burning more than 4 million acres so far, more than double the previous record, as <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/california-wildfires-2020-2648098058.html" target="_self">EcoWatch</a> reported on Monday.</p>
<p>So far, five of the six largest fires in the state have occurred this year, according to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/oct/06/california-wildfires-gigafire-first" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">The Guardian</a>. The August Complex Fire has burned through more than double the amount of land as the state's previous record holder, the Mendocino Complex Fire, which ravaged Northern California in 2018, as <a href="https://earther.gizmodo.com/california-has-its-first-gigafire-in-modern-history-1845275126" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Gizmodo</a> reported.</p><p>The August Complex Fire started when a series of dramatic lightning strikes caused several small fires that were increased by strong winds. The small fires joined together to form the gigafire that is still burning today, as <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/10/06/us/gigafire-california-august-complex-trnd/index.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">CNN</a> reported.</p><p>It was one of several fires that intensified from a series of bad luck as lightning strikes were followed by intense heat waves and high winds that ushered in dry winds. That combination allowed some fires to double overnight, as <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2020/10/05/california-fires-4-million-acres/" target="_blank">The Washington Post</a> reported.</p>
<p>"We predicted last year that we were living with the chance of such an extreme event under our current climate," said Jennifer Balch, a fire ecologist at the University of Colorado Boulder, on <a href="https://twitter.com/DrBalch/status/1313294938063335425" target="_blank">Twitter</a>, as The Guardian reported. "Don't need a crystal ball."</p><p>California's first gigafire is actually not the first one the world has seen this year. In January, Australia's saw a gigafire when lightning strikes caused a series of fires that, like the August Complex Fire, morphed into one in on the border of Victoria and New South Wales, as The Washington Post reported. That fire covered nearly 1.5 million acres.</p><p>Historically, the U.S. has seen several gigafires, too. The most recent was the Taylor Complex Fire in Alaska in 2004, which covered roughly 1.3 million acres. In 1988, the Yellowstone Fire in Montana and Idaho burned over 1.5 million acres, as CNN reported.</p>
<p>Experts say the increased frequency and intensity of the fires will be the new normal in the West as the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/climate-crisis">climate crisis</a> intensifies. According to an analysis by <a href="https://www.climatecentral.org/news/western-wildfires-climate-change-20475" target="_blank">Climate Central</a>, the increased heat coupled with prolonged <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/drought">drought</a> have made today's wildfire seasons three months longer than it was in the 70s and wildfires are three times more common, as The Guardian reported.</p><p>A CNN meteorologist said that California's wildfires are eight times larger than they were in the 70s and the amount of land burned every year has increased by 500 percent.</p><p>The good news for Northern California in the immediate future is that temperatures are supposed to drop 15 degrees Fahrenheit at the end of the week and rain will move in to help the firefighting efforts, as The Guardian reported. However, it will not be enough rain to put an end to the 2020 fire season.</p>
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The Glass Fire in Napa County along CA-128 on Sept. 30, 2020 in Calistoga, California. Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images
The California wildfires set a record this year after burning more than 4 million acres in a season that is still going, according to the AP. Fire officials announced the grim new record Sunday, noting that the amount of land the fires have consumed this year is at least double that of any previous fire year.
<p>"Since CAL FIRE officially began recording state responsibility fire figures in 1933, all large fire years have remained well below the 4 million acre mark for acreage burned, until now," said the <a href="https://www.fire.ca.gov/daily-wildfire-report/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection</a>, the state's official fire agency, on <a href="https://twitter.com/CAL_FIRE/status/1312852574962241537" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Twitter</a> Sunday. "This year is far from over and fire potential remains high. Please be cautious outdoors."</p>
<p>On Sunday, CAL FIRE announced that this year the state has battled more than 8,200 blazes, which have damaged more than 8,000 structures. The fires have also resulted in 31 deaths. That does not include the damage caused by the fires that raged through Oregon and Washington. Currently, roughly 17,000 firefighters are still working to control and extinguish at least 23 major fires in the state, as <a href="https://www.npr.org/2020/10/04/920154138/california-wildfires-have-burned-4-millions-acres-and-the-season-isnt-over-yet" target="_blank">NPR</a> reported.</p><p>"The 4 million mark is unfathomable. It boggles the mind, and it takes your breath away," said Scott McLean, a spokesman for CAL FIRE, as the AP reported. "And that number will grow."</p>
<p>The August Complex Fire is the largest blaze still burning in California. It is burning in Northern California as it has done since it started Aug. 16. It is currently 54 percent contained, according to <a href="https://www.fire.ca.gov/incidents/2020/8/16/august-complex-includes-doe-fire/" target="_blank">CAL FIRE updates</a> from Sunday night. On Saturday, wind cleared some smoke. When that happened, high temperatures and low humidity fed oxygen to the fire, giving it new strength, according to the update.</p><p>Fortunately, rain is in the forecast for Northern California this week, which will provide some much needed aid in containing the region's ongoing blazes, as <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/10/05/us/california-wildfires-monday-weather-relief/index.html" target="_blank">CNN</a> reported.</p>
<p>"A front is pushing through the Pacific Northwest today which is bringing cooler, drier air," CNN meteorologist Michael Guy said on Monday. The areas that are fighting the August Complex Fire, the Zogg Fire and the Glass Fire will all see significant rainfall on Friday, which will last through the weekend.</p><p>"Rain through this period will impact areas from San Diego to Seattle — however the bulk of the rain will occur from the Mendocino area in Northern California to the Canadian border," Guy said, as CNN reported. "This should be something to help the firefighters contain the blazes."</p>
<p>While there is some optimism about next weekend's weather prediction, the immediate forecast is for continued heat that will force firefighters to keep up their relentless efforts to contain the fire.</p><p>"We are seeing some relief in the weather, but it's going to be three of four days before it really makes a difference on the fire," said CAL FIRE meteorologist Tom Bird at a Sunday news briefing about the Glass Fire, as the AP reported. "The one good thing going forward, we're not expecting any wind events to push into the fire."</p><p>As of Sunday morning, the Glass Fire, which started in Napa last week, covered 63,885 acres and was 17 percent contained, as NPR reported.</p><p>The size of this year's fires is more than double the 2018 record of 1.67 million burned acres, or 2,609 square miles, in California, according to the AP. That meant that they affected people who were not in the path of the fires as air quality around the state plummeted and gave an eerie orange hue to the sky. The phenomenon of <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/air-pollution">bad air</a> that made its way into homes prompted a run on air purifiers across the state.</p>
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A September 17 report by the Rhodium Group calculates that 1.8 billion tons more greenhouse gases will be released over the next 15 years as a result of climate change rollbacks the Trump administration has achieved so far. Pete Linforth / Pixabay / CC0
By Karen Charman
When President Donald Trump visited California on September 14 and dismissed the state Secretary of Natural Resources Wade Crowfoot's plea to recognize the role of climate change in the midst of the Golden State's worst and most dangerous recorded fire season to date, he gaslighted the tens of millions of West Coast residents suffering through the ordeal.
<p>While Trump declared that the weather will just "start getting cooler" and that science is irrelevant to the wildfires, millions were <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2020/09/16/smoke-air-west/" target="_blank">struggling to breathe</a> through the toxic smoke that gave Portland the week-long distinction of having the most hazardous air on the planet, with pollution levels in Seattle and San Francisco close behind. Whole towns in California and Oregon have been destroyed by the wildfires.</p><p>A growing body of scientific evidence over the last several decades confirms that as atmospheric levels of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases rise, so too will frequent, intense and increasingly deadly weather events. Strange new weather phenomena like fire tornadoes, "snowacanes" and "rain bombs" are now part of our experience and language. Droughts, unprecedented heat, wildfires, hurricanes, tornadoes and flooding are happening more often, becoming more severe, and occurring over larger and larger areas.</p><p>This year several strange and extreme weather conditions combined to create the perfect firestorm across the Western U.S. A prolonged <a href="https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-09-06/southern-california-weather-forecast-sunday-los-angeles-record-breaking-heat" target="_blank">record-breaking heatwave</a> saw temperatures reach 130 degrees Fahrenheit in Death Valley, California, on August 16, and 121 degrees Fahrenheit in the Los Angeles suburb of Woodland Hills three weeks later on September 6. In mid-August, more than 10,000 dry <a href="https://inciweb.nwcg.gov/" target="_blank">lightning strikes began igniting fires</a> in Northern California, Oregon and Washington, including all over the Bay Area where they were eerily close to heavily populated areas. Lightning-induced fires are also torching Idaho, Arizona, Utah, Montana, Colorado and New Mexico. Subsequent high winds in drought-stricken landscapes then turned the initial sparks into major conflagrations.</p><p>By the morning of Trump's California appearance, 28 major fires had incinerated more than 3 million acres just in California. Fires in California, Oregon and Washington had combined to create a hellscape of toxic smoke that turned the skies in those states <a href="https://www.democracynow.org/2020/9/10/leah_stokes_west_coast_fires" target="_blank">orange, blood red and deep magenta</a> and was detected as far away as Europe. At least 35 people had died.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, on the other side of the country, Hurricane Sally, one of five named storms then swirling in the Atlantic, was just two days away from flooding coastal communities from the Florida Panhandle to Louisiana. Sally, which submerged downtown Pensacola in five feet of water, hit just three weeks after Hurricane Laura caused massive flooding and 10 deaths. Slamming into the Louisiana coast with 150-mile-an-hour winds, Laura was <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/weather/live-blog/hurricane-laura-makes-landfall-category-4-early-thursday-live-updates-n1238373/ncrd1238385#liveBlogHeader" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">one of the strongest hurricanes to make landfall in U.S. history</a>.</p><p>So far, 2020 has been an extremely busy hurricane season with more than 20 named storms, seven of which formed in the first half of September. With two more months before the hurricane season officially ends, there could be several more. Meanwhile, many of the fires across the West are still burning.</p><p>Nor has catastrophic weather spared the middle of the country this summer. On August 10, a particularly strong derecho, a quick-forming massive wall of intense winds, blasted through Iowa, Wisconsin, Illinois and Indiana. The derecho cut a path 770 miles long, held its strength for 14 hours, and clocked winds up to 140 miles per hour. Four people died, and crops and buildings on some 10 million acres in Iowa — nearly a third of the state's farmland — were heavily damaged. This storm also caused significant damage to cars and homes, downed power lines and destroyed massive numbers of trees in Cedar Rapids, Des Moines and parts of Chicago.</p><p><span></span>In 2019, the <a href="https://nca2018.globalchange.gov/" target="_blank">Fourth National Climate Assessment</a>, a comprehensive report mandated by Congress to study the impacts of climate change, found that without substantial and sustained greenhouse gas reductions along with vast infrastructure upgrades, unabated climate change will threaten much that many Americans take for granted and lead to an unrecognizable, dystopian existence for large swaths of the population.</p>
<p>Among the report's findings: food will become harder to grow and be lower in quality but more expensive. Clean, safe water supplies will become scarce in many parts of the country. Human health will take a significant hit from worsening air and water pollution, greater exposure to disease-carrying insects, pests, foodborne and waterborne pathogens, as well as the <a href="https://harpers.org/archive/2020/10/perfect-storm-saipan-typhoon-yutu/" target="_blank">emotional strain of having to deal with the reality and uncertainty</a> of catastrophic weather events and their aftermath. Heat will kill more people. Energy supplies will become increasingly unstable and more costly (because most U.S. power plants need a steady supply of cooling water to operate).</p><p>Moreover, the report predicts that already compromised roads, bridges, and the safety of pipelines all over the country will be vulnerable to damage from violent storms and flooding. Whole communities, especially those facing rising sea levels along the coastline, will be forced to move. Increasing production and supply chain disruptions will cause significant damage to the economy as a whole. Areas and industries that depend on natural resources and good, stable weather will likely be hardest hit with annual losses in the hundreds of billions of dollars by the end of the century, an amount exceeding the current total economic output of many U.S. states.</p><p>Overall, the report predicts "substantial net damage to the U.S. economy throughout this century," though it notes that poor and disadvantaged communities will disproportionately bear the worst impacts.</p><p>A stark illustration of what current levels of greenhouse gas emissions will look like is provided in <a href="https://projects.propublica.org/climate-migration/" target="_blank">maps</a> by the Rhodium Group, a New York-based independent research organization, which forecasts a much harsher living environment for many parts of the U.S. over the next 20 to 40 years. Temperatures above 95 degrees Fahrenheit will become much more common, especially in the South and Southwest, with places like Phoenix, Arizona, much of interior Southern California and southern Texas likely sweltering in 95 degrees or hotter for half the year.</p>
<p>Along with rising temperatures, humidity is expected to dramatically increase, even in places like Arizona, Southern California and Nevada, which have long been known for their dry heat. When excessive humidity combines with extreme heat, it creates "wet bulb" temperatures where sweating fails to cool the body. Such conditions make it dangerous to work outside or for kids to play outside. According to Rhodium's projections, current emissions are on track to turn much of the Mississippi Valley, the above-mentioned areas in the Southwest, southern Texas, and coastal areas in Florida, Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina into high wet bulb zones.</p><p>Despite all of these future threats — on top of the climate disasters we are already seeing — Trump, the ruling Republicans, the fossil fuel sector and their defenders in right-wing media continue to deny climate change.</p><p>"If we don't have a stable environment to live in, there's no way to have life, liberty, or pursue happiness," Jeffrey Potent, adjunct professor of sustainability at Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs, told <em>Truthout</em>, decrying the Trump administration's attack on the government's ability to oversee and protect our environment.</p><p>"This is completely different from anything I have encountered in Washington," said Tyson Slocum, director Public Citizen's energy program. "It's an all-out assault on everything for the public interest."</p>
Foxes Guarding the Henhouse
<p>Before he assumed power, Trump attacked regulations as unnecessary barriers to freedom and economic prosperity. Since taking office, he has targeted anything enacted by the administration of his predecessor, Barack Obama, and taken steps to withdraw the U.S. from the Paris agreement, the international effort to combat climate change. He has also staffed heads of key agencies with climate deniers of various stripes, forced out career public servants and created a hostile work environment for those who don't profess loyalty to his deregulatory agenda.</p><p>Like Trump himself, some of his cabinet choices displayed an audacious penchant for <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/09/27/us/donald-trump-taxes.html?action=click&module=Spotlight&pgtype=Homepage" target="_blank">self-dealing</a> and abusing their positions of authority. One example is Trump's first Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator, Scott Pruitt, who aggressively worked to overturn Obama's climate regulations, spent most of his time in <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/trump-epa-head-steps-down-after-wave-of-ethics-management-scandals/2018/07/05/39f4251a-6813-11e8-bea7-c8eb28bc52b1_story.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">private meetings</a> with fossil fuel and chemical company executives, sidelined career EPA staff and reconfigured independent scientific advisory boards to make them more supportive of the industries EPA is charged with regulating. Dubbed "<a href="https://www.latimes.com/politics/la-na-pol-pruitt-leaves-20180705-story.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">one of the most scandal-plagued Cabinet officials in U.S. history</a>," Pruitt resigned in disgrace after revelations about his multiple brazen abuses, including using the agency as his personal concierge service and piggy bank.</p><p>Pruitt's deputy, Andrew Wheeler, a <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/andrew-wheeler-acting-epa-administrator-former-number-two-before-scott-pruitt-resignation/" target="_blank">former coal industry lobbyist</a> and longtime Republican Washington insider, took over and has continued Trump's deregulatory agenda apace.</p><p>At the Department of Interior (DOI), a sprawling agency that oversees 75 percent of the country's public federal lands and includes the U.S. Geological Survey, which is tasked with evaluating natural hazards that threaten life and the health of our ecosystems, Trump installed another flamboyant anti-environmentalist to head the agency. Like Pruitt, Trump's first Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke aggressively attacked environmental regulations, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2017/05/07/epa-dismisses-half-of-its-scientific-advisers-on-key-board-citing-clean-break-with-obama-administration/" target="_blank">ditched more than 200 advisory panels</a>, and pushed to open up vast swaths of public land to oil and gas drilling. Described by one environmental group as "<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/interior-secretary-zinke-resigns-amid-investigations/2018/12/15/481f9104-0077-11e9-ad40-cdfd0e0dd65a_story.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">the most anti-conservation Interior secretary in our nation's history</a>," Zinke was forced out after numerous highly publicized conflict-of-interest scandals.</p><p>The DOI is now run by Zinke's deputy secretary, David Bernhardt, another longtime Republican Washington insider and former oil industry lobbyist who has also been the subject of <a href="https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2020/05/this-is-still-happening-david-bernhardt-trump-lincoln.html" target="_blank">several government ethics complaints</a> for various violations favoring polluting industries.</p><p>More recently, longtime climate change denier David Legates, a climatologist at the University of Delaware previously <a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/news/19032015/u-delaware-refuses-disclose-funding-sources-its-climate-contrarian" target="_blank">funded by fossil fuel interests</a>, was hired for a <a href="https://www.npr.org/2020/09/12/912301325/longtime-climate-science-denier-hired-at-noaa" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">top job</a> advancing weather modeling and prediction at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Legates has called for <a href="https://www.democracynow.org/2020/9/18/noaa_david_legates_climate_crisis" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">increasing carbon emissions</a>.</p><p>The Trump administration has done much more than stack government agencies with fossil fuel industry proponents. It has removed or diluted discussion of climate change from as many government platforms as it can and decimated independent scientific advisory boards that provide unbiased, fact-based information the government needs to enact policies that protect the public. It has also <a href="https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/482352-trump-budget-slashes-funding-for-epa-environmental-programs" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">slashed environmental agency staffing and budgets</a>.</p>The Damage So Far
<p>A September 17 <a href="https://rhg.com/research/the-rollback-of-us-climate-policy/" target="_blank">report</a> by the Rhodium Group calculates that 1.8 billion tons more greenhouse gases will be released over the next 15 years as a result of climate change rollbacks the Trump administration has achieved so far. These include repealing Obama's main climate policy, the Clean Power Plan, which was intended to reduce dirty emissions from power plants; increasing pollution from cars by rolling back fuel economy standards and challenging California's longtime authority to set stricter emissions standards; targeting controls on hydrofluorocarbons, powerful greenhouse gases used mainly in refrigerators and air conditioners that also destroy the Earth's protective ozone layer; and allowing unreported and unregulated emissions of methane, another potent greenhouse gas, by oil and gas companies.</p><p>Besides these measures, Trump is also trying to gut core environmental statutes like the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, the National Environmental Policy Act and the Endangered Species Act, all of which were enacted to protect human health and preserve a livable world.</p><p>The Paris agreement aims to keep the rise in average global temperatures at less than 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels and hopefully cap it at 1.5 degrees C or lower. We are now at approximately 1.2 degrees C and counting.</p>From Your Site Articles
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Columbia Basin pygmy rabbits. Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife
The wildfires that roared through Eastern Washington in September had a devastating impact on an extremely endangered species of rabbit.
<p>The fast-moving Pearl Hill and Cold Springs fires scorched a habitat for Columbia Basin pygmy rabbits on Sept. 7, wiping out around half of the species' recovering population, <a href="https://www.hcn.org/articles/latest-endangered-pygmy-rabbit-population-halved-by-fast-moving-fire?fbclid=IwAR2pzH5M9FLQkGBEVPriSAyklH8Tej1B66EhCfPKYQbnAkSD9j3kEJT8chA" target="_blank">High Country News reported Monday</a>.</p><p>"The sun was blotted out, it was just red from the fire glare and the smoke and all you saw was rocks and sand and dust, there was just nothing," Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) Biologist Jon Gallie told <a href="https://www.wenatcheeworld.com/paywalloff/fire-wipes-out-half-of-columbia-basin-pygmy-rabbit-population/article_8c20b63c-f475-11ea-b668-83235dc86d8a.html" target="_blank">The Wenatchee World</a> after the fire. "I have not seen a sagebrush fire that hot in my 13 years out here."</p>
<p>Gallie leads a recovery program for North America's smallest rabbits, which are about the size of a grapefruit, according to High Country News. Their population was devastated during the 20th century by development, agriculture and wildfires and, in 2001, the last 16 were gathered from the wild for a captive breeding program. Scientists bred the Washington rabbits with pygmy rabbits from the Great Basin of the intermountain West and began to reintroduce them to the wild in 2011, according to The Wenatchee World.</p><p>To defend against wildfires, the rabbits were released in three different locations: Jameson Lake, Beezley Hills and Sagebrush Flats. It was the Jameson Lake population that was lost to September's flames.</p>
<img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNDQ0Nzg4NS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYxMjQ5MjQ3Mn0.D6_1M4ciX784XMASOHmBKtmQxkxB7aE4WDkiR6Z2MvI/img.jpg?width=980" id="edb37" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="1d81accb8933f5bf30a885568b7bcc2c" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
A pygmy rabbit rescued from a breeding site in Beezley Hills, Washington eats owl clover in its new enclosure. Kourtney Stonehouse, WDFW
<p>"We have pygmy rabbits well distributed on the landscape in two other areas, so not all is lost," Gallie told High Country News. "We will just have to chart a now more challenging path to recovery."</p><p>However, WDFW manager of <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/wildlife" target="_self">wildlife</a> diversity Hannah Anderson told <a href="https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/environment/endangered-wildlife-habitat-burned-in-wildfires/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">The Seattle Times</a> that the department had been focusing on the Jameson Lake population and had expected it to increase.</p><p>"It's devastating," Anderson said. "A catastrophic loss and a significant loss in recovery."</p>
<p>The rabbits aren't the only endangered species that were harmed by the fires. The Pearl Fire may also have reduced the state's sage grouse population by 30 to 70 percent, according to The Seattle Times.</p><p>The fires also damaged the sagebrush ecosystem these and other species depend upon. This unique, biodiverse shrub-steppe environment once covered 10.4 million acres of Washington state, but has declined by 80 percent since the mid-19th century. The fires wiped out thousands more acres within days.</p><p>While sagebrush ecosystems are used to fires, <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/invasive-species" target="_self">invasive species</a> of weeds have taken root that dry out early and encourage hotter, larger fires. It takes sagebrush steppe 10 to 20 years to recover from such blazes.</p><p>"Truly, now preserving what we have left is going to be the challenge," WDFW habitat program director Margen Carlson told The Seattle Times.</p>The <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/climate-change/" target="_self">climate crisis</a> is also <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/wildfires-climate-fires-2647729127.html" target="_self">fueling</a> larger, more extreme fires in Washington and around the world.
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Activists fight a peat fire in Siberia in September. ALEXANDER NEMENOV / AFP via Getty Images
The wildfires that ignited in the Arctic this year started earlier and emitted more carbon dioxide than ever before.
<p>Now, a group of researchers is warning that the nature of Arctic fires may be changing, and it's important to understand how in order to better predict the future of the global <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/climate-change/" target="_self">climate</a>.</p><p>"It's not just the amount of burned area that is alarming," University of Colorado Boulder fire and <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/permafrost" target="_self">permafrost</a> ecologist Dr. Merritt Turetsky said in a press release <a href="https://phys.org/news/2020-09-arctic.html?fbclid=IwAR3y_vHkipR0x6-jCOdOYoVJYSHmqigeMnzhjBIQxV_-2GUnFbA4pfiMzzE" target="_blank">published by Phys.org</a>. "There are other trends we noticed in the satellite data that tell us how the Arctic fire regime is changing and what this spells for our climate future."</p><p>Turetsky co-wrote a commentary in <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41561-020-00645-5" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><em>Nature Geoscience</em></a> Monday with two other fire experts. The <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/scientists" target="_self">scientists</a> pinpointed two important ways that Arctic wildfires are changing.</p>
<h3>1. Zombie Fires</h3><p><a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/zombie-fires-arctic-2646140786.html" target="_self">Zombie fires</a>, also known as holdover fires, occur when fires from the previous season continue to burn beneath the ground during the winter. These blazes can then reemerge when the snow melts and the weather warms.</p><p>Satellite monitoring data from the <a href="https://atmosphere.copernicus.eu/copernicus-tracks-effects-arctic-circle-wildfires" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service</a> confirmed that zombie fires helped drive 2020's unprecedented wildfire season, which broke records both for the number of blazes and the amount of carbon released into the atmosphere, as <a href="https://www.livescience.com/zombie-wildfires-burn-arctic.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Live Science reported</a>. But the scientists writing in Nature Geoscience say they still need to learn more about these unusual fires and how they may contribute to climate feedback loops.</p><p>"We know little about the consequences of holdover fires in the Arctic," Turetsky said in the press release, "except that they represent momentum in the climate system and can mean that severe fires in one year set the stage for more burning the next summer."</p><p>Indeed, the 2020 wildfire season broke records that had been set just the year before, in <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/arctic-wildfires--2639340124.html" target="_self">2019's also unprecedented season</a>.</p>
<h3>2. Fires Where Fire Shouldn't Be</h3><p>The other troubling feature of the 2019 and 2020 Arctic wildfire seasons is that their blazes ignited in areas typically resistant to burning, the scientists pointed out. This included tundra vegetation such as dwarf shrubs, sedges, grasses and mosses and previously burn-free environments like bogs, fens and marshes.</p><p>Significantly, more than 50 percent of the 2020 fires burning above 65° North occurred on ice-rich permafrost, which contains the most carbon of any Arctic soil.</p><p>"Nearly all of this year's fires inside the Arctic Circle have occurred on continuous permafrost, with over half of these burning on ancient carbon-rich peat soils," commentary coauthor and London School of Economics and Political Science fire scientist Dr. Thomas Smith said in the press release. "The record high temperatures and associated fires have the potential to turn this important carbon sink into a carbon source, driving further global heating."</p><p>The scientists called for more research into the dynamics of Arctic fires to better understand how they will contribute to the climate crisis. Part of this requires collaborating with local and <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/indigenous" target="_self">Indigenous</a> communities, who can provide on-the-ground observations to accompany satellite data.</p><p>"The burning Arctic is a global issue that requires a global solution," the scientists concluded. "While the expertise of the Indigenous communities of the North and Arctic nations will be central to any success, we cannot expect them to shoulder the responsibility alone."</p>
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Smoke from the Glass Fire rises from the hills on September 27, 2020 in Calistoga, California. Justin Sullivan / Getty Images
Just days after a new report detailed the "unequivocal and pervasive role" climate change plays in the increased frequency and intensity of wildfires, new fires burned 10,000 acres on Sunday as a "dome" of hot, dry air over Northern California created ideal fire conditions over the weekend.
<p>In Napa County, the <a href="https://newsletter.climatenexus.org/e2t/tc/MVsnnZz8yLxW6P5d-B4dc0qsW8LzBkh4gwXy7N9cd5Jc3p_b1V1-WJV7CgWgFVy0qkd5XbdwLW5rt4gV4w-xTxV-h4Sg7DzJBzW5VDwxQ3l7DhlVCBttb6m7nxWW8h_xDy6FQdyWN1MjKcdcmhpSW2PLWml7pwBvcW1F6-cJ2tvc7YVLFDBf6T5bxTW23C4-w3v4S8DN8Q-7gX1b8vjW7qpRrH4rKWlkW30JwJZ855nXJW19qdGb16-Nl-W3j2wJ85gX-N5W23Yjdj2WwgVkW1jYthC6rq58qW84KgzL4s_BFqN1gy5rt_sw_1W6SFvpr79sx-dW8BvcQr56DrDjW4QJnYK7VYJQqW3pXL934WSgQ_VkF-F63ZtxGzW3LYfZW47SGGpW8QTrvx7qv7wjW6fxRYj96cjcGW42NZpM87shmPW6_T2nL6KbSm_2jj1" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Glass Fire</a> burned more than 2,500 acres, forcing at least 2,000 residents and a hospital to evacuate and threatening about 2,200 structures. </p><p>The fire tore through vineyards and jumped two rivers Sunday evening and was zero percent contained as of late Sunday night. </p><p>"It's a cremation," Craig Battuello, whose family has raised grapes in St. Helena for more than a century, told KPIX.</p>
<p>As of Monday morning, the Shady and Boysen Fires, burning near the Sonoma-Napa county line were believed to be spot fires from the Glass Fire. </p><p>Further north, the <a href="https://newsletter.climatenexus.org/e2t/tc/MVsnnZz8yLxW6P5d-B4dc0qsW8LzBkh4gwXy7N9cd5Jc3p_b1V1-WJV7CgCKFW50rbql5Kh3Q5N2KHP3P2ScQpW1P-1sG1C8V06W2CLx6N7GgT9BW8qGKpg2vggG-N8vd4vHfRgblW8zkwnS7lVrSGVcvmJ783gfdwW6jC5L78V29r2W2c49zy50gjRHW1ZlstL5wlHn9W6XZmDT55sqxNVCbwwc7xFcL0W6_mQlr1b_tzxN15BHn-N0nvsW6xCrys8JvpZRN2yl4Z979WpGW9jcx4F5zKNh_W4fwqXR5CcvncW4RDx9Z3wWt60N10kQLMKP46nW2JkYKK1j91VMW8928mj2dj6KdW7KgRGL7GLxJyW7yzmXm8dT1KxW8ZDR5K92wwwvW7W69vt7mSF4TW2BvFh62rGtxHW2Mr1r98ZFby7W98zv6k3y1t0n2jH1" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Zogg Fire</a> had burned 7,000 acres as of Sunday evening. </p><p>Electricity will be shut off for 65,000 Northern California customers in 16 counties to prevent the spread of the fires.</p>
<p><strong>For a deeper dive:</strong></p><p>Increased frequency and intensity: <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-54278988?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=96174415&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-8qp2mUDhBu291ydfwMMiNGyBDHagoosg_k0IqcpI7CtDhXLM4ZmHgVGa2PRKbaxWoLM6t_MPwLlThcOqkbF70YlOx1D3YHNqvErsDeqFeQuAoxwfg&utm_content=96174415&utm_source=hs_email" target="_blank">BBC</a>, <a href="https://www.eenews.net/climatewire/2020/09/25/stories/1063714657?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=96174415&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-9sDZNbxU236xY4m-Wo12Sv03RABQinScs_T_bXj4OydAg0HafEAxz-H2tjZKojcYTytgAwY8kgfctp1KmPD3T51QSw1yqzM2Lj9nwXcoZ5f1nJLS4&utm_content=96174415&utm_source=hs_email" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">E&E</a>; Weekend conditions: <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2020/09/27/california-wildfires-winds-heat/?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=96174415&_hsenc=p2ANqtz--eGMrt1syferudaktlGVVKMEY0GtRdCEFE9kh0KVmGUeUqMyFxCIQ0uuU2lQiOoEr4QLg9SDVH3DRcvNTzOD1qgp5_WGz9BcjX4N6GuTxUYJeS0iY&utm_content=96174415&utm_source=hs_email" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Washington Post</a>, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/sep/25/california-heatwave-temperatures-wildfires?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=96174415&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-852YwT7VEURpg5t5xAoR9oxVViLPVsN2P0wwSp11Y3ArzCpfgKhMttNcRhmr_ZAomIiv3yOhYRU9x44rztsRiJh1QWy3JUwMnn5w_RhEaPG7mkePg&utm_content=96174415&utm_source=hs_email" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">The Guardian</a>, <a href="https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/Hot-temperatures-high-fire-danger-and-slightly-15599419.php?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=96174415&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-_deidYKtyzBYgRzfz2uTLKmxXv7ayQ9lx4prpYBmk0kLTr7XmVEO45lydcOhKT74ojRRHrUShZFsnjD4TQoNdt38iAOjvFlvIkNgg1flRtlzrqUkw&utm_content=96174415&utm_source=hs_email" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">San Francisco Chronicle</a>; Fires: <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/09/28/us/california-wildfires-zogg-fire-glass-fire-monday/index.html?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=96174415&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-_6pqkRWXQh8abROXh8Hd8JX9gf5cB1_tgZjEct1oPBJU-OrfFF6Q8f60lOTKo-GU2tzseTSf9Kv0RNIhWzEacsX3m07IuEMen-BjYaTXskOaX9vMk&utm_content=96174415&utm_source=hs_email" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">CNN</a>, <a href="https://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2020/09/28/wildfire-erupts-near-st-helena-evacuations-underway-in-neighborhoods-near-silverado-trail/?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=96174415&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-8mQ894hiDyvTPS1n2NPmnSWmEw4Lq7lWXD4R9cqHT4X8F9PuphlEQ31smYpTnEAm9eJ1U4o02_809pVEuttvmBz9a4J9bK1xqiiT0eCKP6tAb7aQk&utm_content=96174415&utm_source=hs_email" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">KPIX</a>, <a href="https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/calistoga-st-helena-deer-park-wildfire-evacuations-15600692.php?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=96174415&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-9F4-Wab7eZREhnULDmGIV0k9x_NThFQU5_MSquHuNaZDkQ7bRH6a4Yu-qDDXa55xAVioefHg3tLRHunHs43IHEeaKIrF1QvA6KBmbV5pgy7QjydDY&utm_content=96174415&utm_source=hs_email" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">San Francisco Gate</a>, <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/california-wildfires0st-helena-wine-country-napa-county-today-2020-09-28/?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=96174415&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-9P0BbBx9nYT3T_1W-lOffDYHQEjYmkZbDQQIibib1tKlKDaqb51l8wXnA6X5XEXFXkzvfGhFT2z79GUksHfelxxg4MVYL0bPHMOlCY5A65LlPsFHc&utm_content=96174415&utm_source=hs_email" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">CBS</a>, <a href="https://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/news/early-morning-napa-county-fire-grows-to-800-acres/?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=96174415&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-9Exio8Ld8lxE0RHLM1p_BgKjdAw9k32hG2HsVJiYGLt3RNPgtSKhF03njhfHjzZlgD9DRwXqHzr10D8ESwuVg7A9wh0Rp9bPno6hjxvZ3wuXPRzPo&utm_content=96174415&utm_source=hs_email" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">The Press Democrat</a>, <a href="https://www.sfchronicle.com/california-wildfires/article/Wildfire-breaks-out-near-St-Helena-in-Napa-15600677.php?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=96174415&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-99w-thHE2aSzf_q6Xk1dgS6yrogihar09euhVC0DLPcYKVgtV0q10OqQhPZWSfU4T404sedEO8ONHYXClq4HmIwj3L2Qe3_8lbm7JIt2LVUjLJxCc&utm_content=96174415&utm_source=hs_email" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">San Francisco Chronicle</a>, <a href="https://abc7news.com/wildfires-trigger-new-evacuation-orders-in-napa-county/6619307/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">ABC-7 KGO News</a>, <a href="https://www.mercurynews.com/2020/09/27/fire-breaks-out-in-napa-as-forecasters-predict-hot-smoky-week/?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=96174415&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-91dr7E9vqo3PKR-X9I3GwmK5scJrwMwNSrP6keEdMz9OtJtMplme2bHxd5_ifedEYGRxjWBUN_ENqITOVBN2pUdFobXvQHWm5LUisYU0sJcru9b4Q&utm_content=96174415&utm_source=hs_email" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Mercury News</a>, <a href="https://krcrtv.com/news/local/fire-breaks-out-in-igo?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=96174415&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-_YUqKikCN8aIADKO_iTe_OqXWKrw5UUYBNuwNHJX914J9zo_nLfPjCd-7DlhquzwJJgLe53hGZYorAMbJ5AOb1Rdx0xVYXjwwjj12TjjjHrZSqmSs&utm_content=96174415&utm_source=hs_email" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">KRCR</a>, <a href="https://sfist.com/2020/09/27/napa-county-glass-fire-grows-to-over-800-acres-more-evacuations-underway-structures-burned-as-blaze-continues-ballooning/?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=96174415&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-9ltVJVENifXl3oUfL35FYoQ3V3kLoZchjPypQecv1NlGERt1mMFbUPlwXdxHLOeAV8faIokxuwaY3ytvFDyz795UAyxF-uYAMOrgf-OfhGLD196vg&utm_content=96174415&utm_source=hs_email" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">SFist</a>, <a href="https://www.sfchronicle.com/california-wildfires/article/California-blazes-exploding-New-evacuations-from-15602171.php?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=96174415&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-9dkNr9eCqgGEvxi7dOEa1aCUevyW70sAoQecnkS5HXDhUnLD7j22Q0CbtWWj-QIZOAHcVir2IcolKHa58GHN4jLhEp03DjMLML6hxI0-aY6EQnV3w&utm_content=96174415&utm_source=hs_email" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">San Francisco Chronicle</a>, <a href="https://weather.com/news/news/2020-09-27-california-napa-county-glass-fire-impacts-evacuations?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=96174415&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-9dHhWSMpBzxlxna9RotW7frfqtFg37auwCIa7aomquA5T0AocvkVfG4cXDC46SDmnLmRY5H4DZleZFT5J6o5pqaqGxhrrOfvJpMSabN5m_8ToB39A&utm_content=96174415&utm_source=hs_email" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Weather Channel</a>; Climate signals background: <a href="https://www.climatesignals.org/climate-change-wildfires?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=96174415&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-9zQsXAgonNscvqMBp2K5xbAheSFH5-kQT_5wAP3h2PJMHU4BrnyEMk0rDW8Y7i6GEy__b9ICr4Wq88tNUf6Y10Q4t9gWyCHDhIjx7tiiHjVdBBP8A&utm_content=96174415&utm_source=hs_email" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Wildfires</a>, <a href="https://www.climatesignals.org/events/western-wildfire-season-2020?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=96174415&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-_jlihPzlQ5DGWbcnHKcnMuMmAZLm2WudQwftKMhR4ey5l8X06_xMSJqNkdNBq4nj6SMP1pr2rIH_4BDtVYCZ5dB2V6pRZ_Ka6CMg6qOQFA0koy2Z8&utm_content=96174415&utm_source=hs_email" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">2020 Western wildfire season</a><br/></p><p><em>For more </em><a href="http://ecowatch.com/climate-change-news/" target="_blank"><em>climate change</em></a><em> and </em><a href="http://ecowatch.com/business/renewables/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><em>clean energy</em></a><em> news, you can follow Climate Nexus on </em><a href="https://twitter.com/ClimateNexus" target="_blank"><em>Twitter</em></a><em> and </em><a href="https://www.facebook.com/ClimateNexus/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><em>Facebook</em></a><em>, and sign up for daily </em><a href="http://climatenexus.us4.list-manage1.com/subscribe?u=d1f5797e59060083034310930&id=7c84c08aaa" target="_blank"><em>Hot News</em></a><em>. </em></p>From Your Site Articles
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Gov. Jay Inslee on the Climate Crisis: ‘We Cannot Give in to Defeat and Pessimism’
25 September
Insights + Opinion
Gov. Jay Inslee of Washington comforts Marsha Maus, 75, whose home was destroyed during California's deadly 2018 wildfires, on March 11, 2019 in Agoura Hills, California. Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times / Getty Images
By Governor Jay Inslee
Climate Week this year coincides with clear skies in Washington state for the first time in almost two weeks.
In just a few days in early September, Washington state saw enough acres burned – more than 600,000 – to reach our second-worst fire season on record. Our worst fire season came only five years ago. Wildfires aren't new to the west, but their scope and danger today is unlike anything firefighters have seen. People up and down the West Coast – young and old, in rural areas and in cities – were choking on smoke for days on end, trapped in their homes.
Fires like these are becoming the norm, not the exception.
<p>That's because as the climate changes, our fires change. Climate scientists tell us that if greenhouse gas emissions continue on their current path, later this century the <em>average </em>year in Washington will eventually be warmer than the single hottest year of the 20th century. The heat leaves our land and vegetation dry and primed for ignition, with blazes for which our landscapes are not evolved to cope. We're seeing more acres burned, and more days with our state swathed in hazardous smoke and ash.</p><p>Rain, cooler weather, and heroic firefighting efforts have finally tamped down the fires and poor air quality; but the burn scars remain, and they are most acutely felt by those who lost homes, businesses, and loved ones in fires this year.</p><p>I have seen the chaos firsthand in recent visits to burned areas both east and west of the Cascade Mountains. As communities in Malden, Bonney Lake, and Graham, Washington, recover from the damage done this month, it's not enough for us as leaders to help our towns recover from one devastating event after another. We need a plan to stop these increasingly ferocious natural disasters from becoming uncontrollable. The situation demands that <a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/t/climate-change/" target="_blank">climate change</a> be front and center in this plan – because it is the root and stem of the new challenges we face in disaster response.</p>
<p>While wildfires are the most recent, and some of the most visceral images of climate change, they are unfortunately just one manifestation of a <a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/t/climate-crisis/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">climate crisis</a> with far-reaching implications.</p><p>From the woods and prairies to the oceans, rivers and streams, we see the damaging effects of climate change. West Coast marine waters are acidifying at twice the global rate, our streams are becoming too warm to support salmon, and our agricultural productivity is falling as a result of record heat.</p><p>But we cannot give in to defeat and pessimism. This is not a lost cause.</p><p>There is broad consensus on what we need to do to slow and turn back the effects of human-driven climate change: all hands on deck for a global decarbonization that grows jobs and protects communities.</p>
<p>Every year, Climate Week gives us the opportunity to highlight this urgent need. But we need every week to be Climate Week. Given the science, knowledge and tools at our disposal, it is unacceptable that more has not been done to address the terrifying implications of climate change in the 21st century. We have no more time to waste.</p><p>We face a powerful oil and gas industry that has sunk its claws into Congress and numerous state governments, and a presidential administration backed by a major political party dedicated to protecting polluters and spreading lies and confusion about the science. On the flip side is the urgent and painfully clear scientific consensus, coupled with the fact that the majority of Americans support action now on climate change.</p><p>This is a battle that we can – and must – win, beginning with our votes in November.</p><p>And winning the fight won't just protect our communities from the dangerous effects of climate change. It will create enormous new economic opportunity.</p>
<p>The latest jobs report from E2, a national nonpartisan group of business leaders and investors focused on sustainable energy policies, shows there are already more than 3 million clean energy jobs in America today. If we can find the will to massively accelerate the development of renewable resources, we can create millions of more jobs.</p><p>If 2020 has taught us anything, it's that facts are stubborn things, and denial can be fatal. The federal government's failure to accept the reality of the Covid-19 crisis once again demonstrated why aloofness is no replacement for proactive leadership.</p><p>While we know this administration would be wise to change its destructive path – by bringing our country back into the Paris Agreement on Climate Change, by putting in place strong clean car standards, or by restoring key environmental protections razed by Trump's cronies – we know they won't. However, public opinion is clear even after years of misinformation and downright lies. There is not enough oil money in the world to stop the American people from rising up for what's right, and it's time to hit back.</p><p>Let this Climate Week be a reminder not merely of the long road ahead, but of our own power to make that journey together. Start now, so that in Climate Week 2021 we'll have a little less distance to cover.</p>
<p><em>This story originally appeared in</em><em> <a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/" target="_blank">Rolling Stone </a></em><em>and is republished here as part of Covering Climate Now, a global journalism collaboration strengthening coverage of the climate story.</em></p>
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