https://www.huffpost.com/entry/wildfire-smoke-climate-link-republicans_n_6481e765e4b027d92f8b22ad#
Under Apocalyptic Skies, Republicans Blow Smoke On Climate Change
On Thursday, as much of the northeastern U. S. was blanketed for a second day by thick, highly hazardous smoke from wildfires raging in Canada, HuffPost asked Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) whether he sees a link between the hazy air and the overwhelming body of science that shows global climate change is helping give rise to extreme fire.
“We’ve had fires for all of our life, come on,” Tuberville scoffed. “We’re all for environment, but this is just another situation where you’ve gotta do your work in forests. I mean, you just can’t let it grow up. It’s unfortunate that this is happening. It too shall pass.”
It is true that many U. S. forests are overgrown and susceptible to devastating blazes, in large part due to decades of fire suppression and Smokey Bear’s anti-fire messaging. But it’s absurd to suggest that solving the current wildfire problem is as simple as preventing trees from growing old. In fact, mature and old-growth forests are more resilient to fire, and they sequester massive amounts of planet-warming carbon.
Tuberville wasn’t the only Republican to use the historic smoke event — a rare phenomenon in cities like New York — to peddle pro-logging talking points while doing somersaults to ignore or downplay the climate change link.
At a Senate GOP press conference Thursday in Washington, D. C., Sen. Steve Daines (R-Mont.) said East Coasters are getting a taste of the smoky summers that have become the norm out West.
“This is what happens when you have more lawyers in your forests crawling around versus loggers, and when your forests aren’t managed properly,” he said, referring to environmental groups that have sued to block timber projects. “Washington bureaucrats and the court system in this country continue to give us policies that can result in air quality like this.”
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