‘Willful denials are harming our nation’: Gov. Inslee writes to president about climate change, historic wildfires

Gov. Jay Inslee wrote a letter to President Donald Trump on Monday after the president visited the West Coast to see the devastating aftermath of the recent fires.

Inslee’s letter called on the president to listen to climate scientists and recognize the effects that climate change has had on the already historic fire season in Washington and down the West Coast.

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“I implore you to recognize the science behind this destruction and stop your path of distortion and deception,” Inslee wrote.

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The letter said that study after study confirms the close connection between climate change and intensifying wildfires, and Trump’s “reckless statements that climate change is a hoax and your gutting of environmental policy benefit no one but fossil fuel companies.”

Inslee pointed to the fires over the past few weeks in Washington, where hundreds of thousands of acres have been burned, including 80 percent of the buildings in Malden.

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“I would urge you to abandon your half-baked theories and engage in good faith about the obvious relationship between climate change and wildfires,” he wrote.

Read the full letter at this link.

Cox Media Group