Haaland: Blaming California Removing Dams for Fires Is Excuse from 'Climate Deniers'

On Monday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “ReidOut,” Interior Secretary Deb Haaland responded to arguments that California removing dams due to pressure from Native American groups is to blame for the devastation in the recent fires by saying, “I expect this from climate deniers. And climate deniers are consistently trying to find excuses for why we shouldn’t have to pay attention to this crisis that caused these wildfires in the first place.”

Haaland said, “I expect this from climate deniers. And climate deniers are consistently trying to find excuses for why we shouldn’t have to pay attention to this crisis that caused these wildfires in the first place. Healthy ecosystems help to protect our planet. And, unfortunately, the climate crisis in the state it is now has — it causes these terrible 100-mile-an-hour winds. It exacerbates these fires.”

She added, “I think what we need to do is concentrate on thanking our firefighters, the heroes of our time, for dropping what they’re doing in other states. The Native American firefighters that have deployed to California to help with these fires, we need to thank them. We need to ensure that we are helping people to get through this terrible crisis instead of blaming Native Americans, which, of course, is absurd. Native people are our first stewards of our lands, and, in fact, Joy, if we didn’t feel that Native Americans have something to teach us, we wouldn’t have our over 400 co-stewardship agreements that we have with tribes right now that help us steward our lands.”

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