Nineteen brave men are dead. A fire was caused by lightning. It couldn't possibly be anything more than that. And the wingnuts are terribly offended that anyone might try to link fire with global warming. Sarah Palin tweets thoughts and prayers. But politicizing a tragedy? Perish the thought.
The strategy for those funded by the fossil fuel industry is veering toward that of the National Rifle Association for handling what they call "collateral damage," and the rest of us call "dead people."
Climate change is hitting Arizona hard. A 2012 report on The Age of Western Wildfires spells out Arizona's recent past and its near future: fires over 1,000 acres have quadrupled since the 1970s. The burn season is two and a half months longer than 40 years ago. Rising spring and summer temperatures, along with shrinking winter snowpack, have increased the risk of wildfires in most parts of the West. The climate context behind Arizona's wildfires includes a current drought - 3/4 of the state is in "severe" to "exceptional" drought - combined with the regional heat wave, creating extremely dangerous wildfire conditions. Since 1970, Arizona has warmed at a rate 0.72 degrees per decade, the fastest among the 50 states.
It's easy to gloss over paragraphs filled with powder-dry statistics; harder to make the connection between statistics and tragedy.
Arizona's Republican members of the Western Conference put out a press release with more thoughts and prayers. (All financial data below from Open Secrets.)
Paul Gosar, AZ-04, has taken $39,250 from electric utilities and $29,942 from oil and gas companies during his two terms in office. He offers thoughts and prayers. He also calls for protecting Arizona's coal fired plants from the regulatory overreach of the Obama administration and approval of the Keystone XL pipeline.
David Schweikert, AZ-06, is heartbroken. He's taken $93,015 from the energy sector, including $15,000 from a Koch Brothers PAC, during his two terms. He wants to unshackle restraints on the energy industry and approve the Keystone XL pipeline.
Trent Franks, AZ-08, offers thoughts and prayers. In 2012 alone, he took $14,900 from the oil and gas industry and $10,000 from the electric utility sector. His energy issues page consists mostly of a screed for opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, plus approval of oil shale, tar sands, heavy oil, and coal-to-liquids.
The heart of Matt Salmon, AZ-05, goes out to the families of the firefighters. He took $39,639 from the oil and gas industry and $38,525 from electric utilities in 2012. His signature energy issue is criticizing the White House for stalling approval of the Keystone XL pipeline.
The coal-fired carbon pollution and the heat and the drought didn't cause this wildfire, they'll say. The cause of this wildfire will be reduced to a random lightning strike, just as the deaths of children in a Connecticut elementary school and movie-goers in Aurora, Colorado are ascribed to mentally ill individuals. Candlelight vigils will be held. Grieving widows will be interviewed. Someday this incident will be reduced to a plaque somewhere. The deaths of nineteen brave young men will be put down to firefighters not planning an escape route, a particularly nasty bit of victim-blaming.
And the Arizona Republicans funded by the fossil fuel industry will keep fighting for the right to fry their state and choke on fiery ashes, just as the gun industry tells us that the Second Amendment and some warped notion of liberty are more important than the right to live and breathe.