Wildfires are Now More Destructive than Ever — Climate Change is Involved

‘Unfit Leader’: Neil Young Loses Home to Fire, Rips Trump for Insensitive Tweet

From an Article by Lorraine Chow, EcoWatch.com, November 12, 2018

Musician Neil Young, who lost his Malibu home to the devastating Woolsey fire, is urging the world to come together to fight climate change—especially since the president of the U.S. seems “unfit” to take care of the problem, as the icon said.

On Sunday, the legendary rocker posted a letter on his website, the Neil Young Archives, blasting Donald Trump’s infamous denial of climate science and his Saturday tweet that blamed California’s wildfires on “gross mismanagement of the forests” even though most of the fires are burning on federal land.

Trump’s tweet—which was particularly callous amid the deadly and overwhelming destruction—is also incorrect because the conflagrations in Southern California are urban interface fires, meaning they have nothing to do with forest management, as a local fire association pointed out.

“California is vulnerable-not because of poor forest management as DT (our so-called president) would have us think,” Young wrote. “As a matter of fact this is not a forest fire that rages on as I write this. We are vulnerable because of Climate Change; the extreme weather events and our extended [droughts are] part of it.”

“Our temperatures are higher than ever here in our hottest summer on record. That has not helped,” Young continued. “DT seems to be the Denier. (I’m holding back and not using the word liar just because it rhymes with denier). It really is time for a reckoning with this unfit leader. Maybe our new Congress can help. I sure hope so.”

Young, a Canadian citizen, cannot vote in our elections but is a prominent environmentalist and is no fan of Trump. He was not happy when Trump used “Rockin’ in the Free World” to launch his presidential bid in 2015.

“Hopefully we can come together as a people to take Climate Change on. We have the tools and could do it if we tried. There is no downside,” Young wrote.

He concluded: “Imagine a leader who defies science, saying these solutions shouldn’t be part of his decision-making on our behalf. Imagine a leader who cares more for his own, convenient opinion than he does for the people he leads. Imagine an unfit leader. Now imagine a fit one.”

Actress Daryl Hannah, Young’s wife, recently posted an Instagram photo of charred grounds and fire hoses and included the hashtag #ClimateChangeIsReal.

Other Californian celebrities have responded to Trump’s tweet, including Katy Perry, John Legend and Leonardo DiCaprio, who also pointed out the fires are worsened by climate change and drought, and noted that “helping victims and fire relief efforts in our state should not be a partisan issue.”

Tagged as: climate change, community destruction, fire fighters, Neil Young, wildfires