The impacts of climate change are evident on the Gulf Coast of the United States this week with Hurricane Sally slamming into Florida, Alabama, and Mississippi with terrifying force. The slow-moving storm dumped 30 inches of rain on Pensacola, Florida, destroying a section of the Bay Bridge. Weather forecasters warned that, “Historic and catastrophic flooding, including widespread moderate to major river flooding, is unfolding.” More than half a million homes and businesses in Alabama and Florida have lost power. About 60,000 people in Louisiana have been without power since Hurricane Laura hit weeks ago. The storm is the 8th hurricane to make landfall on the continental United States this year alone – the largest number in recorded history to manifest before mid-September. Climate scientists point out that global warming predicts wetter hurricanes that move slower, thereby unleashing so much rain onto coastal areas that devastating floods are to be expected. 

As the hurricanes wreak havoc off the Atlantic, on the Pacific coast of the nation f as the smoke and haze traveled as far as the East Coast and Europe. In Southern California where two major fires, the El Dorado and the Bobcat fires are still burning, the historic Mount Wilson Observatory is in danger of burning down. Nearby the observatory are transmission towers for most major radio and television stations in Southern California, including KPFK where our program is produced. Fire crews worked overnight to keep the Bobcat fire in check but the blaze remains less than 10% contained. State firefighting resources on the West Coast are running low on funds and the fire season is only at its halfway mark. Air quality is so dangerous that hospitals are seeing a rise in patients struggling with headaches and breathing problems.

In an embarrassing performance President Donald Trump on Tuesday interacted with undecided voters as part of an ABC News town hall event. Among the questions that voters asked was why Trump was tearing down the protections for people with pre-existing conditions in the Affordable Care Act. As Trump began answering, host George Stephanopoulos fact-checked him. The Washington Post fact-checked Trump’s answers and concluded it was essentially, “Four Pinocchios, over and over again.” CNN Journalist