Howie Hawkins, the presidential nominee of the Green and Socialist parties, said
“The wildfires we are seeing not only on the West coast, but across the planet are the latest alarm bell we have to start treating climate change as the emergency it is. These extreme weather events are increasing in frequency, intensity and duration. We need a full-scale mobilization to eliminate the burning of fossil fuels in the next decade, make a rapid transition to clean energy sources, and invest in resiliency measures to help residents survive extreme weather.”
The government must overhaul its development practices and longstanding wildfire control policies. “Just like we have to stop construction in the expanding flood zones, we have to designate wildfire zones where development cannot take place,” noted Hawkins.
Hawkins said that the hundreds of thousands of West coast residents forced to flee for their lives in advance of the wildfires is just the beginning of the climate refugee crisis America will experience. Heat waves, droughts, water shortages, wildfires, rising seas and extreme weather events will force tens of millions to seek shelter elsewhere. While the world governments in Paris in 2016, over U.S. opposition, set 1.5 degrees celsius as the “safe target” for global warming, parts of the country, including areas of California and New England, have already exceeded those limits.
Hawkins said the thousands of inmates being used to fight the wildfires deserve better pay, treatment and training. Hawkins said the government should invest in more professionally-trained firefighters, not use inmates as slave laborers. California just enacted a law that at least gives inmates the chance to use their firefighting experience as an opportunity to be hired as firefighters when released.
