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Personalities like Rob Lowe and President Trump have taken to Twitter to voice their concerns on the issue, with Lowe being a resident of Santa Barbara and is currently evacuating his home. Because this is not the only wildfire raging in California, a state of emergency has been announced by President Trump, with the situation deemed code purple, the highest priority, by authorities. Governor Jerry Brown has labelled this situation as "the new normal", with climate change the driving force between these vast fires which "could happen every year or every few years".
Questions:
1. Do you believe California's multi-million dollar agricultural industry will be affected immensely by this onslaught of fires that have become more apparent in California? If so, do you think this will affect California's status as a major exporter in the country?
2. Based on Governor Brown's claim that these fires are fueled by climate change, do you imagine President Trump will agree with his assertion that these fires will occur more frequently with less regulation on fossil fuels?
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41 comments:
I don't think Donald Trump is going to change how he feels about climate change. I'm just a little convinced that Irma, Harvey, and all the wildfires recently are just bad karma from Trump's neglect to address the issue. He's been notoriously stubborn about his policies and he'll probably just ignore the facts like he's done in the past and say that climate change doesn't exist. He hasn't changed his opinion in the last few natural disasters that may arguably have been caused or worsened by climate change, so why would he now?
I do think the fires are going to take a toll on California's agricultural industry. The Ventura County, which has been the area of the greatest destruction from wildfires, is also the largest growing ground for avocados in California. 90 percent of US avocados are grown in California, and the industry is worth a lot of money. Because of the fire, a lot of the avocado plants are destroyed and the fruits have dropped from trees and are now unable to be harvested for sale because of food safety regulations.
I agree with Caroline when she says that she does not think that Trump will change how he feels towards climate change. I also agree that the agricultural industry has taken a huge hit because of these fires. Hopefully other people will take notice and realize that climate change IS real so that we can prevent future disasters like this.
I think the Californian produce industry will be affected greatly. Like from a few months ago, the Napa Sonoma fires caused some wineries to be closed. Napa is a HUGE exporter of wine, and vineyards can go out of business because their land is burnt or if their wine-making places (sorry i don't know the formal name for those) is damaged from the fires. There has been 2 ginormous fires in the last 5 months, and if President Trump doesn't recognize this problem, that is a large issue. However, due to his past actions regarding climate change,I highly doubt he will change.
I think although it is unlikely that Trump will change his opinion on climate change because of the California fires and the recent natural disasters on the east coast, hopefully these fires will convince other groups, officials, and even citizens that climate change is a real issue facing our world. Even though progress on climate change will be slow if our President is not helping with regulations and policy choices, increased awareness and support from other groups could also be effective. Hopefully the fight against climate change will gain some necessary support as we move into a critical time for the climate issue.
This is the issue about climate change. It doesn't cause some newfangled type of natural disaster to which everyone can say, "That was only possible because of climate change." Instead, it increases the frequency and severity of natural disasters like these fires. To those who understand the science, they know that there is a connection. But many see the fires and other natural disasters as just a fluke, and don't see them in the broader context.
Climate change will continue to wreck havoc, but because the connection between cause and effect is never immediate and obvious, people will continue to ignore the problem, and thus, allow things to get worse.
Should these fires continue, I do agree that California's agricultural industry will be in jeopardy. Fires are absolutely devastating to crops, so it makes sense that they would harm the industry. However, because the agricultural industry in this state is so important, I believe that capitalism will find a way to solve the problem of the fires. People dependent on this industry would not allow it to fail without resistance, which means that there would be a great amount of effort going to preventing and anticipating future wildfires.
I do not believe President Trump will agree with Governor Brown's claims that the fires are fueled by climate change. He is not one to change his viewpoints easily, and I do not think he would do so unless there was absolutely concrete evidence that he was wrong. My prediction is that he will link the fires to some other possible cause.
I believe that these California fires will effect the agricultural industry. However, I do not believe that these fires will have a long term effect in California's exportation of produce and food goods. Additionally, I believe that California wildfires will continue to be an issue, due to drought and global warming effects.
If these fires continue to exist in California, huge amounts of the forest area will be burned down, including houses and other buildings. Farms will also be burnt down, resulting in a huge loss for the farmers and California's economy as a whole. The state government will also lose large amounts of money due to it helping the victims and forest areas from succumbing to even more damage. The loss in the farms will, of course, hurt the agricultural industry as exports will decrease from California.
Trump will most likely not listen to what Governor Brown's claim as I know from past experiences concerning conservative Republicans. As we learned in Gov class, there is less compromise among politicians, and this is clearly seen in Trump who will not accept the view of global warming and the terrible effects of fossil fuels.
While these fires are detrimental to the agriculture industry currently and immediate future, but the state will be able to recover. If the root problem, climate change, is addressed and faced by the government, California has a high chance of renewing agriculture and the state's economy. However, with Trump's reluctance to address climate change, Jerry Brown and whoever is voted as the new governor must push legislation and compromise with the republican side to save the state. However, with rising tensions and polarization in the government, it is harder to pass legislation. This could lead to California being unable to recover from the fires.
I think that agriculture will be heavily impacted especially if these trends continue to scourge California. Previously, when Napa experienced similar fires, several farmers’ crops were tarnished and the renowned Wine County had impacted around a dozen wineries, and while this isn’t a huge amount of wineries it still hurts those farmers who were affected, forcing them to build up their business. Seeing that California is also majorly impacted by technology and STEM based businesses, I highly doubt that the fires will create a huge impact on the economics of California, but I do believe that if these fires augment and reach vital agricultural lands, then it could put California at a deficit as an exporter in comparison to other states. Due to Trump’s unpredictable and shifting beliefs, it is hard to actually determine his stance on climate change. His recent withdrawal from the Paris Climate Agreement created a ruckus within lobbyists, several government representatives, and the American people. I am hoping that due to the severity (code purple) of the situation, Trump’s advisors will recommend and urge him to address the issue. Nevertheless, It is so hard to predict Trump’s actions and his thoughts and ideas are super sporadic and left vague to both the president’s administration and the american people.
The fires definitely becoming worse as it happens to be a dry winter this year. It will make an impact on the California's agricultural I doubt it will be a huge one as we manage to pull out one way or another and California has always been a source of having the most wildfires out of any other states of the USA . I doubt Trump will change in his belief on climate change but everyone refers to him as a wild card. So Who knows, One moment he stands on one issue than the next thing you know he standing on another issue that contradicts the one he just stood on
I do not think Trump will change his stance on climate change due to California's recent fires. It has been shown previously that Trump is very skeptical that climate change is real and I am sure that a few fires in California will change his mind. But I cannot say that climate change caused these fires as it could be coincidence. I know that fires of this size don't occur often, but the hills around LA tend to have wild fires every other year or so (but not to this scale). Brown's comments on climate change causing these fires don't seem to have much evidence. People seem to be searching for blame whether it be climate change, over development, or blaming PG&E.
As for California agriculture being affected, it definitely has large short term effects. As Caroline said, the Avocado industry has taken a big hit from these fires but I'm sure that they can recover relatively swiftly.
I, too, believe the wildfires (namely Thomas) will negatively impact the agricultural industry temporarily and may stall its ability to export to the degree that it has previously. However, I would have to agree with Genevieve’s point that the state will be able to recover. If the agricultural sector is not doing particularly well at a given time, the other industries find a way to compensate in areas agriculture is lacking, meaning California’s GDP isn’t tooooo severely impacted. For example, in the year with the California wildfires who produced the most damage in the 21st century--2008, where 1,525,074 acres burned--California’s GDP bounced 4% below the yearly growth percentage but was able to bounce back up to the positive side of GDP growth in the 2009-2010 period.
Like many others, I don’t think that Trump will waver in his skeptical stance against climate change, even with the code purple rating because of how he is staunch in his opinions despite other serious natural disasters.
No doubt will California's industry be impacted. It would foolish to say that the industry wouldn't be impacted at all. Of course, like the question suggests, one must look at to what degree California's industry would be affected. I don't think it will be heavily impacted. It isn't hard to recover from one big fire. Although if multiple happened, like the one a month or so ago, it would definitely shoot down California's status as a major exporter. I don't think there is any chance that Trump will change his stance on climate change from one small fire. In fact, I don't think any amount of fires will change his opinion. I mean that almost literally. The thing is, I don't see any benefit in him changing his opinion and I am sure he sees that too. Well, I am sure there is some sort of benefit, but it would hurt him more. If I remember correctly, all his friends are in the oil industry or whatnot so he wouldn't want to hurt them.
Trump and the Republicans are taking too much lobbying money (aka corruption) from interest groups of big oil businesses to say that climate change is a hoax created by the Democrats or some excuse like that. The bottom line is that Trump and the Republicans will not change their idea on climate change because the oil industry is a powerful and very rich player in politics and they will do whatever to protect their interests, which is to drill for oil in places like the Arctic and in the United States. One of Trump's main campaign points is to increase jobs in nonrenewable sources, such as oil and coal, which are not environmental friendly, and going away from his political promise.
For California's economy, I don't believe it will have a long term effect on California's farms and agriculture. Remember, this is in Southern California, not in the Central Valley, so there won't be that much of an effect.
I also agree that the wildfires will not change President Trump's view on climate change. Something drastic has to happen to not only the U.S. but other countries before I think he will get involved. It's sad that he probably won't make an effort to stop climate change because it can hurt other states and countries just like it has for California. This has been a huge blow for Californias economy (starting with the Napa fires and now the Southern California fires) because of our agriculture industry. Much of the U.S. produce comes from California and with the food now being contaminated or ruined, it becomes worthless and no profit is made.
Right now we've got the economy to recover from economic hits such as wild fires, but of course if these fires become more and more frequent it will start to become a larger problem. Justin Yank also brings up a good point; Most of the agriculture industry is located in the central valley, but then again I'm not sure how many farms were effected by these fires in Southern California. I know that a good deal of California land is farm land. As far as Trump and his stance on climate change, I'm almost positive that he won't budge, along with many other Republicans. One of Trump's promises was to bring back coal, so to come out and say that climate change is becoming a major problem would contradict the promises he made during his campaign. His ego is too large for him to accomplish such a feat, and also big oil companies, as mentioned by previous comments, unfortunately have a powerful presence in politics.
I agree with Kevin and Timmy. Their ideas that Trump isn't going to change his stance so let's just stop complaining and that maybe the fires could just be a coincidence are the most legitimate. I'm sick and tired of everyone blaming Trump for everything that's going wrong in this country like we didn't have any problems with Obama and everyone lived in utopia. Lots of people in this comments section are basically making a jump and saying Trump is the major problem here because he won't change his views on climate change. I guess some people don't understand that reversing your opinion on something that you have built a huge follower base on just isn't very practical. Two fires in California isn't going to make Trump be like "oh I guess climate change is real guys let's get back in the Paris deal and stop mining coal and oil." Don't get mad at Trump, get mad at the political system instead. Or get mad at people who think the economy is more important than climate change because they were the ones who elected Trump.
The problem with climate change is that it doesn't really do much at its current level. Dry winters can be attributed to just randomness and not climate change. Also why would someone who lives in rural Kansas care if the average temperature of their current summer is a tiny bit higher than last year. They have more money in their pocket which in the end of the day is all that lots of people care about. Campaigning for climate change requires people to give up part of the present for the future and psychology will tell you that that is a very difficult task. My opinion is that if we are ever going to get some climate change legislation passed we are either going to have to educate a huge part of our country or give people free money so they wouldn't care if they lost money to clean energy laws. Both of these are pretty much impossible so everyone should stop whining about Trump and maybe spend some of their energy on finding better ways to prevent/contain/put out fires. If you want to fix the president then go vote in 2020.
I don't see these fires making a dent in Trump's environmental ideologies. The proposed Republican tax bill would eliminate the fire relief vital to an optimal recovery from this tragedy. And it isn't a coincidence that this happened — this decision was made shortly after the North Bay fires, while hurricane relief was at the top of the Republican agenda. But considering that this year's major hurricanes hit in Florida and Texas — which both voted for Trump in the 2016 election — and the North Bay fires hit in California, which obviously voted blue, the lack of fire relief is basically just a punishment for not supporting Trump. Those impacted by these devastating fires in Los Angeles could potentially have a lack of relief as a result of the tax bill.
I think that these wildfires will negatively impact California's economy temporarily. As stated above, I think that California will be able to recover from these fires in the coming years. However, this doesn't change the fact that it is obviously a prominent issue right now. Though I hope Trump would start to accept and acknowledge global warming, I don't think it is like that he will. Hopefully these disasters will shine light on the issue and make it clear that climate change is real and needs to be dealt with. If it is not recognized by Trump and his administration, hopefully outside groups can bring awareness to this issue.
Climate change has been an issue for many years now, but it is hard to say how the views of individuals’ will change, even with the Los Angeles wildfires. While the Thomas fire is the largest wildfire occurring in LA right now, other fires such as the Creek fire, Rye fire, Lilac fire, and Skirball fire contributed to the burning of thousands of acres across southern California. Trump will always continue to believe in his own beliefs and refuse to acknowledge that climate change is a reality that we have to face. These raging fires are not only is a threat to the Earth, but it is a threat to us. Furthermore, despite these fires, there are still individuals who believe that climate change doesn’t exist. All of the losses that people have endured is an indication that this is a new reality that people have to face -- horror, loss, and continuous damage.
I feel like Trump's views will not change via climate change. While their are people saying this could have been caused by Climate Change, their are still many other possibilities and variables. For example, the Napa fire was caused by a PG&E pole being blown down by strong wind. While climate change is important and it's important to recognize, I feel like we should focus our attention on helping the thousands of individuals who are now homeless.
I don't think Trump will change his views on climate change, because it is very difficult to show that a disaster was caused by climate change. Unless we can see a natural disaster and say 'climate change was the sole factor is causing this,' Trump will probably not accept climate change.
This is clearly an economic problem for California, especially if the frequency of fires continues. A lot of California's land is used for agriculture, and fires could cause multiple problems for that industry. One, the product is ruined, and two, people could become reluctant to buy California crops to avoid getting food that is damaged.
I think that these fires have and will have a huge effect on California's as well as the world's economy. A vast majority of US and European produce comes from California, and it is very alarming to see the devastating effect of the ten-year drought on the Central Valley be replaced with these huge fires. The Norcal fires burnt down a vast amount of wine country, basically tanking those wineries for at least a few years while their soil improves and vineyards grow back and for the wineries that didn't get burnt down, I'm sure that their wines will have a peculiar smoky taste to them. These fires around the Los Angeles area are obviously very bad, especially given the poor state of the LA air quality beforehand.
I believe that these fires will have a huge impact on California's agricultural industry. Hundreds of farms are going up in flames right now and the cost from the damage must be astounding. I doubt Trump will change his views on anything regarding climate change, so hoping that he'll have a change of opinion is wishful thinking. We should find a way to reserve water, not only to keep the ground moist-and fire retardant- but also to use in cases like this.
I believe that these fires will have a huge impact on California's agricultural industry. Hundreds of farms are going up in flames right now and the cost from the damage must be astounding. I doubt Trump will change his views on anything regarding climate change, so hoping that he'll have a change of opinion is wishful thinking. We should find a way to reserve water, not only to keep the ground moist-and fire retardant- but also to use in cases like this.
I do not think Trump's views will change on climate change because even if he did start to change his mind, he would not want to confuse his supporters. These fires have heavily affected California's economy especially in both Northern, and Southern California, and it is just really unfortunate for everyone it has hurt during the process.
You would imagine that the agricultural industry would be affected by the fires if there is enough damage. Since this fire is so big, there has to be a huge impact on different fields of crops and work places getting destroyed by the fires. I also think that these fires will not change Donald Trumps opinion on climate change, mostly because of the reason that fires aren't necessarily outright caused by global warming. Lots of people above mentioned this point. Another reason I believe this wont change Trumps opinion is because of the character of the current president. He is not willing to admit to anything unless he has too, and he is a man who will stand by his ideas and beliefs, even if they are wrong.
California has been the victim to many fires as of lately. Those fires have burnt down neighborhoods and caused damage to numerous properties. This will definitely have an effect on the agricultural industry because of all the crops and belongings that have been lost. And for areas that weren’t as heavily impacted, it may have delayed some processes due to air pollution and such. I don’t think Trump will change his take on climate change, as he is known for his stubborn nature. It is better assumed that no action will be taken to limit fossil fuels.
All these fires will doubtlessly damage our agrarian economy. However, with modern technology it will not be difficult at all to rebuild, and soon the area will be recovered. Even if the fires damage the soil we have found artificial ways to stimulate the earth and recreate ideal growing conditions. However, small family farms will not necessarily have the means to restore their land and may have to sell to large corporations. While it is obvious that these fires are a commonplace due to climate change, I doubt that Trump will recognise this and continue to push his agenda despite the repercussions it may have on the country, and even the world.
The agriculture economy throughout California has been affected throughout California as the fires have become more common throughout the south and central regions. The money that has been lost due to some of the fires have been not only the damage but also to the number of crops that have been destroyed or the products too. According to Mercury news, due to the Napa fires, there has been $15+ million dollars lost in buildings and crops as well as around 7 wineries that have burnt down throughout Napa. This has affected the business as there are no crops for the season. I do believe that the exporting from California will be slightly impacted due to the reduced amount that will be exported, but not all of the crops have been affected. I do not believe that trip will change the way that he sees climate change as being a global issue, I believe that he will only see it as another obstacle that he will have to face to get over the issues, however, he will not see it as a necessity to blame climate change for the actions. As he has all his proposals to help those who are working in coal mining and fossil fuels, he will try his hardest to help in California and not try and oppose those in the mining industries to prevent the use of burning fossil fuels. It's just not the way he is.
This will effect California's multi-million dollar agricultural industry. A lot of crops have probably died in this fire, making huge losses for the farmers/ agricultural companies. This will affect California's status as a major exporter in the country. But it won't affect a lot because there are many different agricultural companies in the midwest growing crops/ agricultural stuff. Donald Trump will not agree with Governor Jerry Brown that this is Climate Change because he doesn't agree that climate change exists.
I think that it is very likely California's agricultural industry will be affected by the mass wild fires that seem to have been so commonplace recently. Fire is to agriculture what Adam Sandler is to comedy and it can have terrible long term effects that can cripple people's livelihoods and devastate them emotionally. In regard to the Napa Valley fires, it was stated in a press release that while they are still assessing damage, most of the grapes for this season had already been harvested; so perhaps that can offer us some solace in this seemingly hopeless time. Despite the wild fires terrible affects, I don't think its likely to impact any of us as students at Aragon in any sort of noticeable way. Furthermore, I do not think it is very likely Trump will change his stance or policies on fossil fuels despite the tragedies that have recently devastated many. From what I've seen of him, he is incredibly stubborn and I don't think that this tragedy will change his mind or ideals. I don't know whether or not new policies on fossil fuels will actually improve our current situation, but I can be fairly confident that no regulation will worsen it. For this reason I think new environmental policy should be carefully considered.
The answer to your first question is 100%. California's fires will have a long term effect on the agricultural industry. Not only did it burn a lot of the current crop, but if ruined the soil for the future. Businesses can not just start replanting because of the lack of nutrients in the soil and the layers and layers of ash mixed into this soil. This will probably not stop California from being one of the leading exporters in the United State, but it will have a large detrimental effect on the economy.
In regards to the second question, Trump will never change his mind. He is just like a little kid, even though they may know in the back of their mind they are wrong, they will never say that they are actually wrong. He will continue to ignore global warming to help big businesses and support the fossil fuel industry.
Our agricultural industry will be deeply affected. These fires have burned the current crop and have destroyed the soil for the next seasons due to the ash. I think California exports will be more minimal than previous years and that is because of the fires. On to Trump. Since he doesn't really believe in climate change, I think it would be hard for him to understand that the fires are an effect of the climate changing. Trump is very stubborn, so I don't think his stance is going to change.
I'm not only afraid of this damaging our agricultural industry but the lives of many people around us. I know of some colleges that have been effected by the fires, which is a huge problem for the students that are currently attending and the professors that work there. This is the first major crisis that Trump has had to deal with within our country and I am curious and hopeful he will respond to it well. Really we need to deal with these fires two ways: short term prevention and long term prevention with recovery. A lot of regulation on fossil fuels should really be in Trump's radar right now. I know he doesn't believe Climate Change is real but hopefully he will wake up and realize we need to do something now because we are directly being effected. If these fires don't stop, large portions of cities, neighborhoods, the agricultural industry will be destroyed. Trump needs to get off Twitter and start speaking to our country in a respectable manner and take control over these devastating situations.
According to the maps contained in the link posted below as well as the locations of recent fires such as the Thomas fire, it does not seem like wildfires will leave significant damage on our farming industry. For instance, the fires in Northern California around Redding, the Thomas fire i Santa Barbara, and the various fires in the LA area were either in coastal areas or in mountainous/desert areas- none of them occured in the Central Valley, where most Californian agriculture takes place. However, regardless of agricultural impact. these fires still wrought havoc on the lives of thousands of people, and so minimizing climate change should still be a priority. Hopefully, the dozens of deaths, millions of dollars in property damage, and swarms of Californians evacuating their homes are enough to convince Trump that he needs to tighten his fossil fuel policies.
http://www.starcraftvanilla.com/ca-wildfires-map.html
I agree that the agricultural industry has taken a huge hit because of these fires. These fires damaged crop and because of this, have destroyed the soil for the upcoming seasons. I agree with Winston that Trump will continue to ignore global warming to help big businesses. Lack of soil will hurt big businesses and thus the economy as a whole. Hopefully Trumo will start to wake up and see the detrimental effects of climate change and seek to minimize it.
I believe the agricultural industry has and will continue to suffer from the wildfires all over the state. The fires have not only destroyed agriculture but also communities which will further affect the economy of California. I agree with Alex that Trump will ignore climate change to benefit large corporations that don't want regulations. These fires and other natural disasters that are a result of climate change will continue affect not only the economy but the world all together and hopefully Trump and others with his beliefs will realize this before it is too late.
I don't think that there is any way that the agricultural industry doesn't suffer a little bit as a result of the wildfires, but based on the location of the fires, I do not think that it will impact farms too much. Most of the fires are far away from agricultural centers and farmland, so unless the fires really spread, farms and crops should not be too affected and destroyed. Because of this, I do not think that the agricultural industry as a whole will be impacted too negatively, and I think that farmers will be able to continue to grow and export many of the crops that they rely on for profit. To address the potential response by the government, I do not think that Trump will agree with Governor Brown's claim. Trump has too many ties to fossil-fuel industries, and too many of his constituents are supporters of fossil fuels. He also does not seem to care too much about climate change, so after combining all of these factors I can't see any way that Trump will come out and agree with Governor Brown.
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