Tag: wildfires

Background Briefing: August 26, 2020

 

As the West Burns, 9 Times More CO2 Enters the Atmosphere Than All the Reductions From California’s Green Initiatives

We begin with the wildfires in the West that are expected to flare up again over the weekend with more dry lightning storms in the forecast which have proved deadly in spite of the fact that these many devastating fires are not driven by winds. Another factor in making the task of battling the many fires more difficult is the lack of prison labor due to the pandemic having hit prisons in California depleting the ranks of firefighters. Joining us is David Wallace-Wells, a national fellow at the New America Foundation and a columnist and deputy editor and climate journalist for New York Magazine. His latest book is The Uninhabitable Earth: Life After Warming and he joins us to discuss his article at New York Magazine, “California Has Australian Problems Now” and we assess what can be done to mitigate the twin crises of wildfires and housing shortages, as well as the acceleration of global warming caused by the fires which release nine times more CO2 into the atmosphere than all the reductions of CO2 emissions as a result of California’s green initiatives.

 

The Malign Influence of Stephen Miller Who Follows His Mentor David Horowitz’s Advice That “Fear Beats Hope”

Then we speak with Jean Guerrero, an investigative border reporter for NPR, the PBS Newshour and other public media. Her latest book is HATEMONGER: Stephen Miller, Donald Trump, and the White Nationalist Agenda and we discuss the enormous influence behind the scenes in the Trump Administration wielded by Stephen Miller and the advice he has followed from his mentor David Horowitz, “fear beats hope”. With Miller outlasting all other White House appointees, his life-long hatred of Latinos and other minorities has shaped the white nationalist agenda of the Trump presidency and Miller has turned the Department of Homeland Security into what has become and anti-immigrant bastion as well as a private police force for the president. With Trump doubling down on his war on minorities as he conjures up the spectre of race wars and the burning and looting of America by the imaginary Antifa he claims has the support of what he calls the radical left Democrats, the strategy of fueling fear among the endangered white minority appears to be the trump card being played.  Meanwhile the hope for racial justice following the brazen shooting of a black man in Kenosha, Wisconsin is being overshadowed by dystopian images which are a gift to Trump, so the imperative for the diverse majority of Americans to show up and vote to end this hateful tyranny of the minority, could not be more urgent.