Robert Hubbell writes one of the best blogs around. He is consistently on target with his observations. In this post, he grieves for the people of Hawaii and sees the inevitable link to climate change. I find it hard to believe that there are people who refuse to accept the reality of climate change, as unbelievable as the fact that some people are vaccine deniers. They are all too often the same people.

Paradise is burning. My wife and I are heartsick over the loss of life and destruction of communities and habitat in Hawaii. To the many readers of this newsletter in Hawaii, we hope you and your families, homes, and communities are safe. When you are able, please send a note letting us know that you are okay.

The destruction in Hawaii from wildfires is unprecedented. The fires are the product of long-term changes in weather patterns and land management practices. They are part climate change, part natural disaster, and part man-made accelerant. The effects are devastating and should be shocking to all Americans. The loss of life is tragic. As I sat in a roadside café and watched video of the fires in Hawaii, the news feed running across the bottom of the newscast said, “Florida under first state-wide heat advisory.”

While paradise burns and a state known for heat and humidity experiences an unprecedented heat advisory, you would think that all Americans would treat the emergency as a five-alarm fire. Instead, the opposite is happening—at least among Trump’s MAGA base.

Florida has approved the use of course materials from the conservative organization PragerU to teach (read: indoctrinate) Florida students about the “climate change hoax.” As described in the report I heard today, PragerU wants to combat the notion allegedly being “peddled by climate activists” that the climate crisis threatens our existence. Instead, PragerU claims that climate change is natural, and the evidence is inconclusive about the role of humans in accelerating global warming and extreme weather.

As usual, MAGA disinformation begins with a grain of truth and quickly veers into lies and deceit. Yes, earth’s climate has been changing for as long as the earth has existed. But our current climate crisis relates to the release of carbon into the atmosphere at unprecedented levels over the course of a single century by burning fossil fuels that took hundreds of millions of years of geologic processes to create. That is not “natural” and the role of humans in releasing greenhouse gas into the atmosphere is not open to debate, nor is the effect of that gas on global climate.

Like many MAGA positions that can be simultaneously maddening, disheartening, and dangerous, MAGA climate denialism contains the seeds of its own defeat. Most Americans recognize the threat of human-caused climate change, but younger voters are especially motivated by the issue. As we move toward a critical election for our nation (and the world) in 2024, Democrats should make fighting the climate crisis a prominent part of their messaging. That messaging has the twin virtues of being an area where Joe Biden has exceled and one in which MAGA disinformation is being disproved before our very eyes as we watch our earth—our paradise–burn.

To all in Hawaii, you are in our hearts.