It starts with California but discusses this as a world wide problem. Has a segment with Michael Mann, author of The Madhouse Effect: How Climate Change Denial Is Threatening Our Planet, Destroying Our Politics, and Driving Us Crazy (recently in upgraded and expanded edition with a chapter on Trump).

The offending tweets:

California wildfires are being magnified & made so much worse by the bad environmental laws which aren’t allowing massive amount of readily available water to be properly utilized. It is being diverted into the Pacific Ocean. Must also tree clear to stop fire spreading!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 5, 2018

and

Governor Jerry Brown must allow the Free Flow of the vast amounts of water coming from the North and foolishly being diverted into the Pacific Ocean. Can be used for fires, farming and everything else. Think of California with plenty of Water – Nice! Fast Federal govt. approvals.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 6, 2018

Some of the counter tweets can be found on this thread:

.@CAL_FIRE says it has "no idea" what Trump's talking about in regards to "bad environmental laws" making California's fires worse.
"We have plenty of water for the firefight. The Mendocino complex is next to Clear Lake and the Carr fire has the Whiskeytown Lake and Lake Shasta" https://t.co/Gy0uNx3xiK

— Brianna Sacks (@bri_sacks) August 6, 2018

And from California water expert, Peter Gleick:

Ok. I know something about this.
This is gobbledygook bullshit.
California's forests and rangelands aren't dry & burning because of CA's water policies. There's no shortage of water to fight fires. And the little #water still flowing in rivers to the sea isn't wasted. https://t.co/2f1mljxDNW

— Peter Gleick (@PeterGleick) August 5, 2018

and

Trump doubles down on his previous ignorant tweet about California #water and fires. The only water that reaches the ocean these days is what's left AFTER the massive diversions OUT of our rivers for cities and farms. And there's no shortage of fire-fighting water. Nuts. https://t.co/xWFeuoKv54

— Peter Gleick (@PeterGleick) August 6, 2018

RL Miller of Climate Hawks Vote added these:

Let's try to explain #cawater to @realDonaldTrump at his level. Is this diagram too complicated? pic.twitter.com/mk26Fr12tw

— RL Miller (@RL_Miller) August 6, 2018

here's an easier picture. In Cal, we store wet in a high place. We call it "snow." When the world warms, we have this kind of #cawater: pic.twitter.com/O88S9OxWhT

— RL Miller (@RL_Miller) August 6, 2018

Think Progress covers the melee here.

I know, I know, it’s been looking that way all along so saying that now is meaningless. But not really, because now is now and before was then. I know I know, he can’t do it because the law says he can’t. Well, wrong. That has never been true. I know, I know, it will be like the Saturday Night Massacre all over again. But no, that play has been made by Trump and it failed. Nixon had the balls to make the SNM work, and when Trump did the same thing he got told to sit down because he is basically a bully, and thus, spineless. So, he’ll be doing it a different way.

Syria is is way out, but not as a distraction. Rather, Syria involved Russia. Things are not going well with Russia. Suddenly we have all these negative interactions, and the whole Russia relationship thing is messed up. Why? Because of the fake witch hunt investigation and the fake news. The fake investigation and the fake news are national security threats.

That is the scenario Trump is setting up right now in his tweets. Rather blatantly.

So, the investigation, and the reporting, have to end.

I’m not sure how Trump is going to (try to) shut down the reporting, but here is how he shuts down the investigation.

Currently, Mueller is protected by a set of rules that would require Trump to ask people to do things they are not allowed to do, or could refuse to do, and unless he gets a Robert Bork on the case, that won’t work.

But, the rules are not laws, and they do not exist because of laws. They exist because of executive authority bestowed on the Justice Department.

(Trump, in case you were keeping track, is the executive.)

All Trump has to do is to write an executive order or two getting rid of those rules, and implementing new rules, including a rule that says he can fire any prosecutor working for the Justice department. Sis bam boom, as they say in Queens, Mueller is out.

What could happen then is, of course, Congress makes a move to put a law in place making the special prosecutor position protected. But don’t hold your breath.

Those bastards in the Republican Congress would have to get a 2/3rds majority to override a Trump veto, and they can’t even get a spoonfull of oatmeal to their mouths without dropping it on their laps, so that’s not going to happen. So the investigation will end.

Maybe we can vote in a Democratic Congress, but it won’t be veto proof. We’re stuck with the Republican obstruction and a Trump presidency until 2020.

Or perhaps we take other action, like a general strike against the government or something. I don’t know. But, the Mueller Time Fantasy will probably have to wait for a few years.

But when it happens, it will be nice:

The heatwave that has scorched the nation since Christmas is a taste of things to come, with this week’s records set to tumble again and again in the coming years, climate scientists said.

The hottest average maximum temperature ever recorded across Australia – 40.33 degrees, set on Monday – may only stand for 24 hours and be eclipsed when all of Tuesday’s readings come in. Previously, that record had stood since December 21, 1972.

‘‘The current heatwave – in terms of its duration, its intensity and its extent – is now unprecedented in our records,’’ the Bureau of Meteorology’s manager of climate monitoring and prediction, David Jones, said.

‘‘Clearly, the climate system is responding to the background warming trend. Everything that happens in the climate system now is taking place on a planet which is a degree hotter than it used to be.’’

Read the rest of that report here.

Jones goes on to say that record-breaking temperatures will become more common in years to come, owing to global warming, though of course there will still be ups and downs because natural variation will be riding on top of a warming temperature baseline. He also notes that the changes in weather and effects on agriculture, water availability and general human health are playing out pretty much as predicted by scientists in numerous studies over the last several years. The article by Cubby also goes on to say that 2013 may end up being the hottest year on record.

It is interesting to note that Australian meteorologists have been forced to add a new color to their weather maps in order to depict the extremely warm temperatures. (The image at the top of this post uses the new color, or as they say in Australia, “colour.”

Jeff Masters, of Weather Underground notes in a recent blog post:

The high temperature averaged over Australia was 105°F (40.3°C), eclipsing the previous record of 104°F (40.2°C) set on 21 December 1972. Never before in 103 years of record keeping has a heat wave this intense, wide-spread, and long-lasting affected Australia. The nation’s average high temperature exceeded 102°F (39°C) for five consecutive days January 2 – 6, 2013–the first time that has happened since record keeping began in 1910.

Naturally, as with anything that happens in Australia or America, the heat wave is causing an international incident. Get Energy Smart Now notes:

Some might say that those ‘Down Under’ have a competitive streak with Americans — great allies but truly ecstatic when an Aussie beats an American at the Olympics. At times, however, competition can go too far. And, such is the case with the #BigAussieHeat. After the United States set massive numbers of high temperature records in 2012 … it seems that Australia is on the path to top America’s nightmarish heat wave conditions with environmental conditions.

Next thing you know the’ll be trying for the America’s Cup again!

And now, from this report, a video on Bush Fires in Tasmania:

And, rescuing a Koala:

Anthropogenic global warming: It’s real, and it is impacting us now.

Thanks to Stephan Lewandowsky, who has been providing me with very useful information about the situation down under, where he and his family are sweltering.

More on Climate Change Here.