Yesterday, Donald Trump visited Paradise, California to examine the damage that was done to the area as fires had raged on for days, destroying much of the land. As with every disaster, Trump’s response was offensive, disappointing, and lacking any sort of intelligent thought or basis in fact.
Instead of acknowledging that climate change was a contributor to the issue, Trump once again blamed management and said that California should have done more “raking and cleaning” of forest floors. Trump then spoke about how the president of Finland told him about how the country manages wildfires by taking care of the forest floors. Trump’s words were:
You have to take care of the floors, the floors of the forest, very important. You look at other countries where they do it differently and it’s a whole different story. I was with the president of Finland and he said we’re a forest nation, and they spent a lot of time on raking and cleaning and doing things and they don’t have any problem. And when they do, it’s a very small problem.”
Trump suggested that doing more raking in the forest would “work out well” to prevent future fires in California. Once again, the fact that Trump knows nothing about the world around him or how it works couldn’t have been more obvious. Trump’s comments were so out of line that people living in Finland and around the world actually had to come forward to correct him. Veli-Pekka Kivimäki, a Finnish researcher and lecturer, responded:
I perhaps wouldn’t compare Finland and California climate-wise. And besides, 80% of the country is classified as forest land. We don’t exactly manicure all of it.”
Comedian Billy Procida also said, “Someone please show Donald Trump a globe so he knows how close to the North Pole Finland is in comparison to Southern California.” Here are some of the other responses that made Trump look like an absolute idiot:
I lived in Finland. Lots of forest to rake. I think they smooth out the lakes too.
— John Sipher (@john_sipher) November 17, 2018
We don’t rake our forests here in #Finland. https://t.co/DTBhWkNZIa
— Aki Heikkinen (@akihheikkinen) November 17, 2018
“I grew up in Finland.
a) it rains all year round.
b) we have a lengthy and cold winter.
c) Finland is a sparsely populated country with just over 5mil ppl, with land size ~3/4 of CA and most of it forests and lakes.
d) no friggin body is raking the forests.” @mallahadley pic.twitter.com/1c3nApN4W0
— ☇RiotWomenn☇ (@riotwomennn) November 17, 2018
Featured image via screen capture
