The 18 wildfires currently raging in California have killed nine people and destroyed more than 1,000 homes. Fortunately for residents of the state, Donald Trump knows who to blame: Liberals.听
At first, it鈥檚 hard to make sense of this word soup. But if we apply our far-right conspiracy theory decoder听to the cryptic text, it reveals two alleged villains whom the president seems to blame for California's wildfires: those in the state who听oppose construction听of听a new dam and those who oppose increased logging.
Let me break that down.听Republican lawmakers in California鈥檚 Central Valley (where your food comes from) have long been on the already nearly dry San Joaquin River. This project听听and largely appears to be an attempt to redirect billions of dollars of taxpayer funds to the benefit of large commercial operations in the Valley.听鈥淚t's one thing to put a dam on a river that has water in it,鈥 a local resident explained to the Los Angeles Times. 鈥淏ut to dam up an already dry river does seem like a stretch. You can't squeeze a lot more water out of this river.鈥 The paper describes the amount of water the dam would make available as a 鈥渢rickle.鈥澨
In his tweet, Trump seems to suggest that this Central Valley dam would aid firefighting efforts by creating a water source where one does not currently exist.听Yet firefighters ,听and the river water on how dry the vegetation is in surrounding countryside.听
So why is our fearless leader so hot and bothered about it? Well, I have a theory. The dam would abut the congressional district of Devin Nunes, the Republican Chair of the House Intelligence Committee and an avid supporter of Trump during the ongoing听Russia听investigation. Nunes that, in order to save his pet project dam, that, 鈥淲e have to fight every single day.鈥
What about logging? The Trump administration has upended a careful and much-lauded compromise struck between environmentalists, timber companies, the state, and the U.S. Forest Service following the devastating Rim Fire of 2013 by advocating for . But the administration's听efforts are听currently being thwarted by environmental laws, including the Endangered Species Act. Republican lawmakers are agitating to expedite the approval process, so logging can be expanded despite the existing听regulations.听
“Politicians often use wildfire as an excuse to increase timber targets,鈥 Ray Rasker, the head of independent research group Headwaters Economics It鈥檚 feared that fuel reduction is being used as an excuse to ramrod increased timber production, without sufficient supporting evidence from scientists.听
So what鈥檚 really to blame for California鈥檚 fires? Climate change. Simply put, increased average temperatures are drying up vegetation in the summer, after unpredictable and often extreme winter storms cause temporary growth booms. And because of that, California鈥檚 fires are only going to get worse, no matter how many rivers in the state are dammed or how many trees are cut down. Trump's right that the cause of these fires is related to politics, he's just wrong about .听