The current Hollywood fires have killed at least 24 people and destroyed more than 10,000 homes. The World Meteorological Organisation reports that 2024 was the warmest year on record at about 1.55°C above pre-industrial level, which is a key factor behind California’s conflagration.

Donald Trump will become US President today, 20 January 2025. It is reported he will immediately sign more than 100 executive orders. It is not clear which ones but it is expected that one of his early targets will be to reverse the measures introduced by Joe Biden to limit America’s role as a major contributor to global warming by cutting emissions and halting deforestation. [See here for information on what he actually did on his first day].

Overturning attempts to limit that heating seems incredible, but it is well-known that Trump is a congenital climate change denier who has said that the climate emergency is a myth and the concept of global warming “was created by and for the Chinese in order to make US manufacturing non-competitive”.

In 2017 during his first term as President, Trump announced that the United States would cease all participation in the 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change mitigation, contending that the agreement would “undermine” the U.S. economy, and put the U.S. “at a permanent disadvantage”.

A Guardian editorial has said that “Donald Trump, a convicted felon, [has] used the [Californian] disaster to spread disinformation and stoke political division.” The article goes on to say: “Deadly floods in Spain, Hawaii’s fires and east Africa’s devastating drought show nowhere is safe from [the effects of global warming]. Countries must work toward the global common interest and beyond their narrow national interests.”

But Trump does not share this vision. To him all that matters is gaining personal power and putting America First with himself at the head of it.

One wonders what the future holds for the fight against climate change. Can we expect a future President Musk and if so, what will be his attitude to the issue?

Musk used to support the Sierra Club, the US’s largest environmental group, and donated more than $6m. But since becoming a Trump supporter, Musk now accuses the organization of aiding the fires by opposing the removal of flammable vegetation. “Defund Sierra Club,” Musk posted on X.

Ben Jealous, executive director of the Sierra Club, said “Musk is indulging in disinformation and lies, that is who Elon Musk is right now…It’s disappointing and a far cry from the man we got to know when he was one of the largest donors in the history of the Sierra Club. He’s a different person…The modern Republican party operates as a wholly owned subsidiary of the fossil fuel industry and we now have a president who seeks to confuse and confound the American people. It’s unconscionable.”

However there are some who are fighting back. Rachel Cleetus from the Union of Concerned Scientists says “The United States is still a democracy. There are public interests that will come forward in different kinds of ways. We should not concede that this destruction will be complete.”

We can only hope she is right.