‘This is a climate damn emergency,’ California’s Gavin Newsom says
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A visibly angry Gov. Gavin Newsom warned the rest of the country Friday that California’s record wildfire season is a glimpse into its future if political leaders do not start taking the climate crisis more seriously.
“I’m a little bit exhausted that we have to continue to debate this issue. This a climate damn emergency. This is real and it’s happening. This is the perfect storm,” Newsom said during a visit to the Lake Oroville State Recreation Area in Butte County, where he surveyed damage from the North Complex Fire.
Newsom decried the “ideological BS” that he said is preventing swift action to combat climate change, which scientists generally agree has intensified the severity of natural disasters. California is the midst of the worst wildfire season in its modern history, with more than 3 million acres already burned this year, and the August Complex Fire in Northern California this week became the largest the state has ever recorded.
“California, folks, is America fast forward,” Newsom said.
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