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MANILA – Filipinos have so far escaped fierce fires that raged across parts of the western U.S. that have killed at least 35 and forced hundreds of thousands of people from their homes, the department said Monday. Of Foreign Affairs.
The DFA “confirms that so far no Filipinos have been affected by the recent wildfire incidents off the west coast of the United States,” the agency said in a statement.
He advised the public to monitor the notices issued by the Consulates General of the Philippines in Los Angeles and San Francisco for updates and assistance.
Fires in California, Oregon, and Washington state have burned more than 5 million acres, setting fire to an area roughly the size of the state of New Jersey, in fear that the death toll will rise.
President Donald Trump suggested on Monday that global warming will be reversed and dismissed climate change as a cause of the deadly fires.
“It’s going to start to get cooler. Just watch,” said Trump, who flew to Sacramento on the third day of a reelection campaign.
“I wish science would agree with you,” Wade Crowfoot, director of the California Natural Resources Agency, responded, to which Trump responded, “I don’t think science really knows.”
Trump upon arrival also repeated his argument that forest fires are due to poor maintenance of forest areas, which makes them more combustible.
“There has to be strong forest management,” he said.
“With regard to forests, when the trees fall after a short period of time, about 18 months, they become very dry. They become really like a matchstick,” he added. “They just explode.”
Minutes earlier, Democratic challenger Joe Biden attacked Trump from the opposite shore as a “climate arsonist” whose reelection would be catastrophic for the environment.
“If you give a climate arsonist 4 more years in the White House, why would anyone be surprised if we have more of America on fire?” Biden said, attacking Trump for failing to “take responsibility” for the current wildfire crisis.
“We need a president who respects science, who understands that the damage of climate change is already here,” added Biden, who spoke in Delaware.
Climate change amplifies droughts, which dry up regions, creating ideal conditions for wildfires to spread uncontrollably and cause unprecedented damage.
California Governor Gavin Newsom, who has argued that the fires are driven primarily by global warming, acknowledged when meeting with Trump that better forest management was needed.
But he said the overwhelming cause of the problem is much greater.
“The hot spots are getting hotter, the dry ones are getting drier,” he said. “We present the science and the observed evidence is self-evident: that climate change is real and that is making it worse.”
Of at least 35 people killed by the fires since early summer, 27 died last week.
– With a report from Agence France-Presse
ANC, US, US Wildfire, US Calamity, Disaster, DFA, US Filipinos, OFW, Fil Am, Filipino Americans
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