logo
Left-wing critics blame Texas flood devastation on 'climate denialism,' warn more to come unless inaction ends

Left-wing critics blame Texas flood devastation on 'climate denialism,' warn more to come unless inaction ends

Fox News09-07-2025
While debate over why the Texas floods were so deadly has centered around President Donald Trump's cuts to key weather agencies, left-wing critics have also complained that policy inaction and "climate denialism" were major factors.
As search and rescue efforts continued after the devastating storm swept through Texas on the July Fourth holiday, former Democratic presidential candidate and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg penned an op-ed arguing that the Texas floods "were made worse by climate denialism."
"The latest episode of horrific flooding isn't just about a natural disaster in one state. It's also about a political failure that's been happening in states across the country, and most of all in Washington," Bloomberg wrote. "The refusal to recognize that climate change carries a death penalty is sending innocent people, including far too many children, to early graves."
"We are at a crossroads," Ben Jealous, former candidate for Maryland governor andexecutive director at the Sierra Club, wrote in his own op-ed following the tragedy in Texas.
"We can double down on denial and let superstorms, heatwaves, droughts, floods and fires determine our fate. Or we can lead — with science, resilience, courage, and a recommitment to our values," Jealous said.
Meanwhile, Will Bunch, a national opinion columnist at the Philadelphia Inquirer, said that "so many more lives would have been saved if leaders dropped climate denial and believed in government for the public good."
In response to these arguments, Steve Milloy, a senior policy fellow at the conservative-leaning Energy and Environment Legal Institute, said it was "sad" to see folks politicizing the tragedy in Texas to advance their agenda.
"Just for the record, this area of Texas is known for flash floods," Milloy added. "Extreme rainfall is not correlated with emissions and there hasn't even been any 'global warming' over the past five days." The climate advocacy group Climate Central also added that "it is difficult to directly attribute specific rain events to climate change" in an assessment about understanding the link between the Texas floods and climate change.
Milloy said that while the National Weather Service was "sufficiently staffed" in his view, he thinks a preliminary investigation will show the warning system in place needs improvements.
In a statement to Fox News Digital, White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson called it "shameful and disgusting" to see that in the wake of the environmental tragedy in Texas, people were politicizing it.
"The Texas officials who say, 'We couldn'tqaa [sic] see this coming,' are totally oblivious that they should have seen climate change coming, and done something about it. Climate change denial means more torrential rain for Texas, and more flash flooding," former Washington State Democratic Governor Jay Inslee wrote on social media.
"North Carolina. Texas. When will floods finally wash away the climate change denial in DC that is now washing away America's economically productive clean energy industries?" Inslee asked in a separate post.
One climate group, World Weather Attribution, told Axios it was so confident climate change is what caused the deadly flooding that it does not even plan to study the natural disaster to better understand what caused it. Fox News Digital reached out to the group to understand better why it is so certain of the cause, but did not receive a response. The group investigated the climate change impacts of a July heat wave in Europe as recently as this month, according to the New York Times.
Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

It's Trump's economy now. The latest financial numbers offer some warning signs
It's Trump's economy now. The latest financial numbers offer some warning signs

Yahoo

time16 minutes ago

  • Yahoo

It's Trump's economy now. The latest financial numbers offer some warning signs

WASHINGTON (AP) — For all of President Donald Trump's promises of an economic 'golden age,' a spate of weak indicators this week told a potentially worrisome story as the impacts of his policies are coming into focus. Job gains are dwindling. Inflation is ticking upward. Growth has slowed compared to last year. More than six months into his term, Trump's blitz of tariff hikes and his new tax and spending bill have remodeled America's trading, manufacturing, energy and tax systems to his own liking. He's eager to take credit for any wins that might occur and is hunting for someone else to blame if the financial situation starts to totter. But as of now, this is not the boom the Republican president promised, and his ability to blame his Democratic predecessor, Joe Biden, for any economic challenges has faded as the world economy hangs on his every word and social media post. When Friday's jobs report turned out to be decidedly bleak, Trump ignored the warnings in the data and fired the head of the agency that produces the monthly jobs figures. 'Important numbers like this must be fair and accurate, they can't be manipulated for political purposes,' Trump said on Truth Social, without offering evidence for his claim. 'The Economy is BOOMING.' It's possible that the disappointing numbers are growing pains from the rapid transformation caused by Trump and that stronger growth will return — or they may be a preview of even more disruption to come. Trump's economic plans are a political gamble Trump's aggressive use of tariffs, executive actions, spending cuts and tax code changes carries significant political risk if he is unable to deliver middle-class prosperity. The effects of his new tariffs are still several months away from rippling through the economy, right as many Trump allies in Congress will be campaigning in the midterm elections. 'Considering how early we are in his term, Trump's had an unusually big impact on the economy already,' said Alex Conant, a Republican strategist at Firehouse Strategies. 'The full inflationary impact of the tariffs won't be felt until 2026. Unfortunately for Republicans, that's also an election year.' The White House portrayed the blitz of trade frameworks leading up to Thursday's tariff announcement as proof of his negotiating prowess. The European Union, Japan, South Korea, the Philippines, Indonesia and other nations that the White House declined to name agreed that the U.S. could increase its tariffs on their goods without doing the same to American products. Trump simply set rates on other countries that lacked settlements. The costs of those tariffs — taxes paid on imports to the U.S. — will be most felt by many Americans in the form of higher prices, but to what extent remains uncertain. 'For the White House and their allies, a key part of managing the expectations and politics of the Trump economy is maintaining vigilance when it comes to public perceptions,' said Kevin Madden, a Republican strategist. Just 38% of adults approve of Trump's handling of the economy, according to a July poll by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs. That's down from the end of Trump's first term when half of adults approved of his economic leadership. The White House paints a rosier image, seeing the economy emerging from a period of uncertainty after Trump's restructuring and repeating the economic gains seen in his first term before the pandemic struck. 'President Trump is implementing the very same policy mix of deregulation, fairer trade, and pro-growth tax cuts at an even bigger scale – as these policies take effect, the best is yet to come,' White House spokesman Kush Desai said. Recent economic reports suggest trouble ahead The economic numbers over the past week show the difficulties that Trump might face if the numbers continue on their current path: — Friday's jobs report showed that U.S. employers have shed 37,000 manufacturing jobs since Trump's tariff launch in April, undermining prior White House claims of a factory revival. — Net hiring has plummeted over the past three months with job gains of just 73,000 in July, 14,000 in June and 19,000 in May — a combined 258,000 jobs lower than previously indicated. On average last year, the economy added 168,000 jobs a month. — A Thursday inflation report showed that prices have risen 2.6% over the year that ended in June, an increase in the personal consumption expenditures price index from 2.2% in April. Prices of heavily imported items, such as appliances, furniture, and toys and games, jumped from May to June. — On Wednesday, a report on gross domestic product — the broadest measure of the U.S. economy — showed that it grew at an annual rate of less than 1.3% during the first half of the year, down sharply from 2.8% growth last year. 'The economy's just kind of slogging forward,' said Guy Berger, senior fellow at the Burning Glass Institute, which studies employment trends. 'Yes, the unemployment rate's not going up, but we're adding very few jobs. The economy's been growing very slowly. It just looks like a 'meh' economy is continuing.' Trump's Fed attacks could unleash more inflation Trump has sought to pin the blame for any economic troubles on Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, saying the Fed should cut its benchmark interest rates even though doing so could generate more inflation. Trump has publicly backed two Fed governors, Christoper Waller and Michelle Bowman, for voting for rate cuts at Wednesday's meeting. But their logic is not what the president wants to hear: They were worried, in part, about a slowing job market. But this is a major economic gamble being undertaken by Trump and those pushing for lower rates under the belief that mortgages will also become more affordable as a result and boost homebuying activity. His tariff policy has changed repeatedly over the last six months, with the latest import tax numbers serving as a substitute for what the president announced in April, which provoked a stock market sell-off. It might not be a simple one-time adjustment as some Fed board members and Trump administration officials argue. Trump didn't listen to the warnings on 'universal' tariffs Of course, Trump can't say no one warned him about the possible consequences of his economic policies. Biden, then the outgoing president, did just that in a speech last December at the Brookings Institution, saying the cost of the tariffs would eventually hit American workers and businesses. 'He seems determined to impose steep, universal tariffs on all imported goods brought into this country on the mistaken belief that foreign countries will bear the cost of those tariffs rather than the American consumer,' Biden said. 'I believe this approach is a major mistake.' Josh Boak And Christopher Rugber, The Associated Press Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store