Maui fires: Environmentalist Bjorn Lomborg says "blaming" climate change "takes responsibility away" from politicians

Danish environmentalist Bjorn Lomborg argues that politicians blame climate change to away their "responsibility" for environmental catastrophes such as the Maui fires in Hawaii.

Lomborg made the comments on Fox's American Report when he was invited to speak about the situation in Hawaii following the Maui fires, which claimed the lives of at least 114 people, authorities said Monday. In the aftermath of the disaster, Hawaii's Democratic governor, Josh Green, blamed climate change as the main culprit for the horrific fires. According to Lomborg, climate is just a "very small piece of the puzzle."

State government errors

The state government is facing criticism for its role in the tragedy. Local media outlets report that the state was negligent and did not prevent or fight the fires correctly. According to Fire Department sources cited by Hawaii News Now, it was especially hard to put out the fires due to a lack of resources and means. Also according to the Daily Caller, an official from the Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources was accused of taking too long to respond to a request to fill the Maui Fire Department's reservoirs. Some media outlets pointed out that Manuel Kaleo’s decision to delay filling the reservoirs is due to indigenous Hawaiian beliefs that the official was asked to respect.

“You maybe shouldn’t have a lot of grasses that will just burn a lot. You should adopt better building codes, not what Governor Green did, namely put it on hold because he wants cheaper buildings and you shouldn’t just have one exit road, you should have better firebreaks,” Bjorn Lomborg said in American Report. “And possibly the most important thing is, you should inform people. You should not have a guy that actually decides not to run the alarm because he worries that people might misunderstand it. Most people weren’t informed,” he added.

Herman Andaya, director of the Maui Emergency Management Agency, resigned Thursday after accepting blame for the mistake. For the time being, no one from the state government has taken responsibility for the disaster.

“And this is the crucial bit when you talk about climate change: When everybody blames climate, which is a very, very small part of the whole puzzle, you take away responsibility from all these failures,” Lomborg added. “And that’s, of course, what you really need to focus on if you are going to avoid the next fire.”