Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) on Monday pointed to the catastrophic California wildfires as evidence of the drastic effects of climate change.
{mosads}“This is what climate change looks like,” the liberal firebrand said in a tweet.
“The GOP like to mock scientific warnings about climate change as exaggeration. But just look around: it’s already starting,” she added, linking to footage of wildfires in Vallejo, Calif. “We have 10 years to cut carbon emissions in half. If we don’t, scenes like this can get much worse.”
Research indicates that major wildfires now burn nearly double the area they did in 1970, and other factors such as earlier snowmelt contribute to the dry conditions that create the fires. Federal projections indicate that for some forested areas, the median area burned by fires could increase up to 600 percent from an average annual 1 degree Celsius temperature increase.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) has declared a state of emergency in the Golden State due to the fires, which have forced thousands of people to evacuate and prompted Pacific Gas & Electric to cut power to about 2.35 million people across 38 counties. The National Weather Service has warned of up to 75 mph winds that could cause “erratic fire behavior.”
“I’m seeing people reporting that they’re going to stay and fight this fire,” Sonoma County Sheriff Mark Essick said. “You cannot fight this. Please evacuate.”
Ocasio-Cortez has made climate change one of her signature issues, spearheading the ambitious Green New Deal proposal and endorsing Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.), who sponsored the Senate version of the Green New Deal resolution, as he faces a primary challenge from Rep. Joe Kennedy III (D-Mass.).