The Arizona State Press Snapchat, @statepress. And now, after a hasty reopening, Arizona has a record number of hospitalizations and cases of the virus.

That's the whole idea behind a balanced, planned economy," West said. "China is kind of a boogeyman in sustainability circles," West said, "but they're the only country that hit their Paris Climate Accord commitment.". If you give a climate denier four more years in the White House, why would anyone be surprised when more of America is under water?” Biden asked. Yet Gov. “He says, ‘You’ve got to clean your floors, you’ve got to clean your forests. Keeping masks on as a precaution, life in the city has slowly returned to normal. She says that the "natural" in the term "natural disasters" takes responsibility away from human actions. This year has given us wildfires from California to Australia, a global pandemic and the earliest third-named tropical storm on record. By using this website you consent to our use of cookies. This achievement is further proof that a rationally planned economy and a strong, centralized state can handle crises and confront disaster. "Companies create these situations to begin with.". © 2020 The State Press. California’s forests don’t get the work they need because private landowners fear liability for controlled burns, CAL FIRE doesn’t have enough resources to prioritize controlled burns, and stringent climate regulations make it difficult for proposed burns to get approved. While the disease is natural, the disastrous situation is completely unnatural. West said. “Huge floods proved torrential in the 1920s, for example.” Milloy argued that land use, specifically the use of concrete and poor stormwater management, can divert “excess water into waterways, causing flooding.”. in Justice Studies and an M.A. There's… West says that this push of blame is an enlarged version of the move to assign individual responsibility for systemic, human causes. Although the Midwest did experience devastating floods last year, floods in that area are not exactly new. I said, you gotta clean your floors, you gotta clean your forests — there are many, many years of leaves and broken trees and they’re like, like, so flammable, you touch them and it goes up.”. Tyler O’Neil is the author of Making Hate Pay: The Corruption of the Southern Poverty Law Center. of climate alarmism and government regulation, every natural disaster is a nail.

Gov. In January, Arizona was one of the first states to have a COVID-19 case. earliest third-named tropical storm on record, a record number of hospitalizations and cases, COVID-19 cases still declining in ASU community, Palo Verde West desk assistants encounter students with COVID outside of isolation, Hundreds of students have been approved to leave Tempe dorms, Construction near Tempe campus moving forward despite pandemic, Students worry about securing jobs after college because of pandemic, Video: Get a taste of what the Arizona State Fair has to offer during a pandemic, Arizona Senate candidates to discuss Supreme Court, COVID-19 in debate, Sports, health officials confident in a safe return to Pac-12 football. Joe Biden’s argument boils down to the idea that burning fossil fuels is the key cause behind all worsening of extreme weather events, other contributing factors be damned. All rights reserved. Tropical Storm Cristobal caused immense damage to Mexico and the U.S. It takes humans to turn a natural event into a natural disaster. Wildfires in California, like wildfires in my native Colorado, are nothing new. “Meanwhile, Donald Trump warns that integration is threatening our suburbs,” Biden said, referring to Trump’s attack on Biden’s plan to federalize local zoning (which poses a serious threat to local control of neighborhoods in the name of racial integration). Tune in as I discuss the wildfires up and down the West Coast — and how I'll tackle the climate crisis head-on and create millions of good-paying jobs: https://t.co/yMhodX8RYe, — Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) September 14, 2020. When it comes to wildland fire mitigation, in particular, I learned the truth from my father, who has been a volunteer fireman for more than 30 years. Biden’s energy policies could bring California’s rolling blackouts to the rest of America. As for hurricanes, many peer-reviewed studies have disputed the notion that carbon emissions make hurricanes worse. Vietnam was accused of overreaction in its aggressive response to the virus, but through early efforts was able to keep infections low, without a single death reported. While the state government declared a public health emergency on March 12, Gov. Join PJ Media VIP TODAY and use the promo code LAWANDORDER to get 25% off your VIP membership. Terms under which this service is provided to you, Biden: Coronavirus Is a ‘Wake Up Call’ on ‘Climate Change,’ an ‘Opportunity’ for ‘Institutional Change’, Barack Obama’s Latest Reason to Vote for Joe Biden Is Actually a Reason to Vote Trump, AOC to Co-Chair Joe Biden’s Climate Change Task Force as DNC Unites With Bernie Sanders, Green Activists Fuel China’s Dominance in a Sector Critical to the U.S. Economy and Green Energy, Insanity Wrap #63: Obsessed Left Wants Everyone Who Isn't Them to Just Die Already, The Morning Briefing: Trump's Got COVID-19 and Now the Year Is Going To Get Really Ugly, Virginia Forces Christian Ministries to Adopt 'Government Ideology' or Pay $100K, The Debate Segment on Race Was Appalling and Not Because of President Trump, Sorry, 'Atlantic,' the Only Candidate with a Record of Protecting People of Faith Is President Trump, Gun-Grabbing Grifter Mark Kelly Is Yet Another Democrat in Bed With the Chinese Communist Party. “Midwest floods are not new,” Milloy told PJ Media. However, California’s rolling blackouts provide concrete evidence that a forced transition to green energy makes energy more expensive and more scarce for a society. Like the other Atlantic states, New Hampshire is at risk of hurricanes, however as they tend to lose their intensity as they move northwards, the New Hampshire coast largely remains out of harm's way. The Arizona brush fires have burned over 150,000 acres. Steve Milloy, a former Trump/Pence EPA transition team member and founder of JunkScience.com, noted that California “has experienced megadroughts lasting as long as 220 years over the past 1,100 years — a period before the advent of SUVs and fossil fuel power plants.”. West said that to prevent future natural hazards from developing into disasters, the principles of sustainability should be adopted. Although Biden excoriated Trump for “ignoring the facts” and “denying reality,” he focused his remarks on the wildfires ravaging California, Oregon, and Washington State — fires exacerbated by bad forest management more than any sort of climate change. Like The State Press on Facebook and follow @statepress on Twitter. Opinion: There are no natural disasters.

West also said that we should rethink negative assumptions of China's sustainability.

Doug Ducey didn't limit public gatherings, as other states had done, until March 19. Stemming from the White House, there have been calls in the United States to blame China for the COVID-19 pandemic, despite its efforts to fight the virus and its international solidarity with countries affected by the disease. Even discounting indisputably human catastrophes, 2020 has been relentless. He attributed these natural disasters to climate change, too, as if floods had never happened in the Midwest and hurricanes had never hit the East Coast before humans started burning fossil fuels. Climate activists have opposed the harvesting of dead trees and the aggressive clearing of brush, however. My father sent my brother and me out to rake up dry leaves, pine trees, and other materials we termed “duff” — matter from the forest floor that would go up in flames upon contact with the smallest spark. If Joe Biden thinks merely talking about forest management constitutes “blaming the victim,” then it seems he’s unlikely to champion the policies that would restrain the spread of wildfires in California. How many suburban neighborhoods will have been flooded out? China wasn't alone in addressing the hazard of COVID-19 head-on. Arizona's impatient and short-sighted rulers reflected the American government's way of confronting crisis: unable to sacrifice immediate economic interests, no matter the cost. "You can't take more than you need, you can't take more without being able to replenish natural resources. The wildfires are indeed horrific, but climate change isn’t the real story. My father — and later my brother and I — would go out with a chainsaw to trim the lower-hanging pine branches and a weed-whacker to take care of the tall grasses. Those who disagree are “deniers” of “science.” Nevermind the fact that claims of a climate change “consensus” are misleading and overblown, or the facts that climate alarmist predictions have proven wrong time and time again for 50 years. I grew up in the foothills of dry Colorado, where the grass is not green but brown. This website uses cookies to make your expierence better and easier. "We can't prove where (the new coronavirus) came from, but we're just going to blame China because 'China is evil'," West said. But, while disease, storms and fire are all considered natural phenomena, it takes human mismanagement to create a disaster. "If you have a forest, and you dry it out, and companies dump flammable fluid all over it, and some kid accidentally drops a lit cigarette and lights the whole forest on fire, then is it really that kids fault?" Madison West graduated from ASU in 2019 with an M.S. in Sustainability.

'”, Yes, Trump said that, and he’s 100 percent right. All Rights Reserved.
Biden opened his remarks with a discussion of the devastating wildfires in the West. There is no evidence that more stringent regulations on fossil fuels will prevent wildfires, floods, and hurricanes that have plagued these parts of America for centuries. These events, whilst initiated by naturally occurring hazards, only become disasters when they impact society or a community. Tuesday, June 30, 2020. On Monday, Democratic nominee Joe Biden condemned President Donald Trump as a “climate arsonist,” predicting that if the president wins reelection in November, America will witness more “hellish” events like fires in the West, flooding in the Midwest, and hurricanes on the East Coast. “If you give a climate arsonist four more years in the White House, why would anyone be surprised if we have more of America ablaze? Keep letters under 500 words and be sure to include your university affiliation. Biden did not just promise fewer and less devastating fires if he wins in November. To the hammer (and sickle?) Arizona hasn't been spared either, with a brush fire forcing evacuations and keeping part of a state highway closed.

It has the shortest ocean coastline of the coastal states and is known for its vast forests. Syracuse is located in a pocket of upstate New York that just doesn't see much in the way of natural disasters. Yet Gov. The toll of these disasters is immense. Masks were made mandatory in public, and public health officials still are taking the temperature of travelers leaving the city.