California Wildfires: Trump dismisses concerns over climate change

President Donald Trump has talked about disasters caused by wildfires in California. He told an official that it would “start getting cooler”. He has dismissed concerns over climate problems on a visit to California. 

He met officials working to control the wildfires at a stop near Sacramento, in the center of the state. During his visit to the US West Coast, Mr. Trump argued that poor forest management was to blame for the wildfires.

He dismissedone official’s plea to not “ignore the science” on climate change. He said “It’ll start getting cooler, you just watch… I don’t think science knows actually.”

Trump also claimed that other countries had not handled with the same intensity of forest fires, despite major fires in Australia and Amazon. 

“They don’t have problems like this,” he said. “They have very explosive trees, but they don’t have problems like this.”

He added: “When you get into climate change, well is India going to change its ways? And is China going to change its ways? And Russia? Is Russia going to change its ways?”

Earlier on Monday, Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden called Mr. Trump “a climate arsonist”.

Wildfires in California, Oregon, and Washington State have burned almost 2m hectares (5m acres) of land and killed at least 36 people since early August.

The US National Weather Service has earlier issued a “red flag warning” for areas of the West Coast, as strong winds are expected to spread deadly wildfires more. High winds are likely to hit parts of southern Oregon, with no rain.