Mazie Hirono: We Need to ‘Acknowledge Climate Change Is Upon Us’

Senator Mazie Hirono (D-HI) said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union” that the United States needed to “very much acknowledge” climate change was upon us.

Anchor Jake Tapper said, “Experts warn that extreme disasters such as this one are only becoming more common because climate change is fueling stronger storms, hotter temperatures, more widespread droughts. Earlier this week, President Biden incorrectly claimed he had already declared a climate emergency, which would give him additional powers to combat the climate crisis. Given what you’re seeing on the ground, do you want President Biden to actually declare a climate emergency?”

Hirono said, “I think that we need to very much acknowledge climate change is upon us. There are whole states, by the way, you can’t use the words climate change because they have a head-in-the-sand attitude. But the Inflation Reduction Act provided some $300 billion to combat climate change and to move us away from continuing to rely on fossil fuels. Yes, there is more that needs to be done.”

She added, “There will be lessons learned from this ongoing tragedy for the other counties as well as the county of Maui. Clearly, wildfires is an occurrence in Hawaii. people don’t realize that acres are burned in Hawaii as in so many other states. In terms of the percentage of acreage burned, Hawaii is on a par with other states. There is not enough recognition that we are going to need to combat these kinds of wildfires.”

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