3 years ago
U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday suggested global warming will reverse itself and dismissed climate change as a cause of ferocious fires engulfing swaths of the U.S. West, during a briefing in California on the deadly blazes.
Trump, who flew into Sacramento on the third day of a re-election campaign swing, pushed back against state officials arguing that a heating climate underlies the ever-stronger blazes, which have killed at least 35 people since the start of summer.
"I wish science agreed with you," responded Wade Crowfoot, the head of the California Natural Resources Agency.
The president and his administration have sought to pin the blame for the large wildfires on state officials, saying fuel-choked forests and scrub need to be thinned, more firebreaks need to be cut and flammable debris cleared from forest floors.
Trump said improved forest management was something that could be tackled quickly, whereas climate change would take more time and require international cooperation that he said was lacking.
