Associated Press: “This year’s blazes have taxed the human, mechanical and financial resources of the nation’s wildfire fighting forces to an extraordinary degree. And half of the fire season is yet to come. Heat, drought and a strategic decision to attack the flames early combined with the coronavirus to put a historically heavy burden on fire teams.”

Los Angeles Times: The worst Fire season ever. Again.

“Oregon Republican state senator Fred Girod was one of 11 Republicans who made headlines when they walked out of the senate – some even leaving the state – so that a quorum could not be achieved for a climate change bill,” Labor 411 reports.

“Now with wildfires raging in Oregon, climate change has come to Girod’s doorstep. Literally.”

President Trump tried to explain to reporters how poor forest management can lead to wildfires.

Said Trump: “When trees fall down after a short period of time — about 18 months — they become very dry. They become really like a matchstick.”

He added: “They just explode. They can explode. Also leaves. When you have years of leaves, dried leaves on the ground, it just sets it up. It’s really a fuel for a fire. So they have to do something about it.”

“If you give a climate arsonist four more years in the White House, why would anyone be surprised if we have more of America ablaze? If you give a climate denier four more years in the White House, why would anyone be surprised when more of America is underwater?”

— Joe Biden, quoted by CBS News.

David Legates, a University of Delaware professor of climatology who has spent much of his career questioning basic tenets of climate science, has been hired for a top position at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, NPR reports.

“Legates has a long history of using his position as an academic scientist to publicly cast doubt on climate science. His appointment to NOAA comes as Americans face profound threats stoked by climate change, from the vast, deadly wildfires in the West to an unusually active hurricane season in the South and East.”

“Multiple mega fires burning more than three million acres. Millions of residents smothered in toxic air. Rolling blackouts and triple-digit heat waves. Climate change, in the words of one scientist, is smacking California in the face,” the New York Times reports.

“The crisis in the nation’s most populous state is more than just an accumulation of individual catastrophes. It is also an example of something climate experts have long worried about, but which few expected to see so soon: a cascade effect, in which a series of disasters overlap, triggering or amplifying each other.”

Green That Life: Why protecting the environment is more important than ever.

Amber Phillips: “Over the past 24 hours on his Twitter feed, President Trump has attacked Democrats and racial injustice protesters nearly a dozen times, mentioned law and order, and made false claims about mail voting.”

“But on the increasingly deadly, catastrophic wildfires in California and Oregon that have displaced 500,000 people, caused fire tornadoes, killed a 1-year-old, and blotted out the sun in one of America’s largest metropolitan areas, he’s been silent.”

“More than 90 major fires that have burned more than 5,300 square miles – almost the size of Connecticut – are raging in 13 Western states,” USA Today reports.

“As the world battles the coronavirus pandemic, more and more protective equipment is ending up in the sea. Globally we are using 129 billion face masks and 65 billion plastic gloves every month,” the BBC reports.

Green That Life: 25 eco-friendly resusable face masks that you and the planet will love.

“Hurricane Laura is forecast to rapidly power up into a ‘catastrophic’ Category 4 hurricane, even stronger than previously expected, as it churns toward Texas and Louisiana, swirling wind and water over much of the Gulf of Mexico,” the AP reports.

Green That Life: “We are all addicts. Addicts of single-use plastic, that is. Most of us know about the polluting effects of continued disposable plastic use. We’ve seen the heartbreaking photos of wildlife choking on plastic straws, caps, and plastic bags. We may even have experienced flooding caused by plastic-clogged waterways. But the craving for convenience is relentless and plastic production continues.”

“As we struggle to overcome mounting piles of plastic waste, we face a new onslaught of plastic production that risks plummeting our planet into a deeper environmental crisis.”

“The U.S. Energy Department proposed easing water efficiency requirements for shower heads Wednesday following multiple complaints from President Trump about how low water flow is impeding his ability to properly wash his hair,” Bloomberg reports.

Said Trump: “You can’t wash your beautiful hair properly.”

New York Times: “Today, 1% of the world is a barely livable hot zone. By 2070, that portion could go up to 19%.”

“Scientists have learned to project such changes around the world with surprising precision, but — until recently — little has been known about the human consequences of those changes. As their land fails them, hundreds of millions of people from Central America to Sudan to the Mekong Delta will be forced to choose between flight or death. The result will almost certainly be the greatest wave of global migration the world has seen.”

Joe Biden unveiled his energy and climate plans with a call for spending $2 trillion over four years on climate-friendly infrastructure — a proposal the campaign is casting as part of a wider economic recovery package.

Los Angeles Times: “The plan is notably more aggressive than the one Biden campaigned on during his party’s primaries, part of an overall move in which he has embraced some of the proposals of his more progressive rivals in an effort to unify the party for the general election.”