Second -- and this is a big one -- there's climate change.
As the planet grows warmer, more moisture evaporates, creating drier and more combustible conditions. Years of drought exacerbate this. Given that we've already rectified our old fire suppression policy to eliminate fuel build-up, climate change is the biggest threat we must tackle now.
My hunch is that Trump isn't actually interested in raking all of California. He sees California as a big blue state, a political enemy, and he's taken an opportunity he sees to score points against it.
This is heartless and dumb. It's heartless because we've lost lives, homes, and businesses. The town of Paradise lost everything.
It's dumb even on Trump's venal terms, because catastrophic wildfires don't only happen in blue states. Reliable red states like Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming burn too. Glacier National Park in Montana just suffered a destructive fire this past summer.
Getting wildfire and climate change policy right at the national level helps all of us, red and blue states alike. Trump needs to stop making idiotic comments about raking and start listening to advisers on this before more property and lives are lost.
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