Los Angeles fires: Trump accuses a small fish of having aggravated the fires

Donald Trump has accused the protection of a fishery fishery in California of having aggravated the fires that have devastated Los Angeles for more than two weeks. The comments of the American president on his Truth Social platform, consolidated in a decree signed upon his return to the White House on Monday, aroused criticism from the scientific community.

According to experts, the Delta spur has only a minimal relationship with the water supply of Los Angeles, despite its recent mention in a decree signed by Donald Trump, returning to species protection measures and targeting The diversion of the waters of the Delta in the north of the state.

In this decree asking environmental agencies to prioritize “citizens rather than fish” and to stop “radical ecologism” in California, he reaffirmed the existence of a link between the protection of the hawk of Delta and the water supply of the regions affected by recent fires. Words that reflect an ignorance of the environmental efforts put in place by California, underline certain scientists and, at the same time, encourage skepticism in the face of climatic issues.

It is a question of finding “a scapegoat responsible for all our problems, in this case, fires and drought, and to concentrate the anger” of the public on a small fish, explained to theAFP John Buse, legal advisor in biodiversity.

California is experiencing a complex water crisis, amplified by climate change and drought episodes, and the spur of the delta is not at the heart of the problem, according to scientists. The population of this fish was once abundant north of the estuary, explains Peter Moyle, specialist in the species at the University of California in Davis. But the degradation of its habitat and exposure to pollution made it a threatened species in 1993.

The massive pumping of water from north to south harm the hawk and other aquatic species of the delta, which requires a redirection of the currents for the survival of these. But these measures have an almost zero impact on the water supply to Los Angeles, and by extension on fire management in the region, underline specialists. This is evidenced by the high water level of the main water tanks across the State – and more particularly in the South – throughout the month of January, according to official data consulted by theAFP.

Even during drought years, environmental measures protecting the hawk of the delta represented only a tiny fraction of water flow reductions in California. The main factor determining the volume of water pumped from north to south is more in the precipitation rate and the melting of snow entering the San Francisco estuary.

According to Caleb Scoville, sociologist at TUFTS University, in Massachusetts, the hawk of the delta, by its small size and relatively unknown status of the general public, has become an easy target for certain conservative figures, transforming a local debate on the Water management in California as a national conflict between the protection of citizens’ security ecosystems. Rather than treating the fundamental causes of the water crisis in California, whose global warming, Donald Trump prefers to see a political bias, he concluded.

As soon as he came to power, Donald Trump triggered a new withdrawal from the United States of the Paris climate agreement, a reverse all in the fight against climate change that jeopardizes global efforts to brake it.

Curious to discover who makes the news at Essential? Join us on the Business N ° 1 network in Luxembourg!