Our Planet Climate and Geopolitics
Donald Trump has blamed California governor Gavin Newsom for depriving the wildfire-ravaged LA region of water because he wanted to protect “an essentially worthless” fish.
Trump falsely claimed on Truth Social that protections for endangered delta smelt native to Northern California’s wetlands were the reason Newsom refused to sign a “water restoration declaration” to free up supplies.
Newsom’s office said that such a declaration doesn’t exist. Jeffrey Mount, senior fellow at California’s Water Policy Center, tells the BBC that while fish protections reduce the amount of water flowing from northern California at certain times, “it has no bearing on the current availability of water for fire-fighting”.
More likely causes of the devastation include climate change, building in fire-prone areas and the Santa Ana winds. Strangely, this isn’t the first time the smelt has received a bad-mouthing from Republicans.
In 2011, Sarah Palin blamed protections for “destroying” people’s lives in the Central Valley: “Where I come from, a 3-inch fish, we call that bait.”
