Hawaiian Democrat Senator: Maui Fire A 'Product' Of 'Climate Change,' 'Certainly Global Warming'

Senator Mazie Hirono (D-HI) suggested during a Sunday appearance on CNN's 'State of the Union' with Jake Tapper that the catastrophic wildfire that all but annihilated the resort town of Lahaina on Maui was caused, in part, by climate change and "certainly global warming."

As reported by Timcast News, Hirono began with an apt expression of grief as one might expect saying, "We are in a period of mourning and loss." She noted that first responders in her home state are now searching for the remains of missing people and that DNA samples have been requested to assist authorities in the challenge of identifying the dead. “We are in … the initial phases, but we’re gonna do everything we can to provide the kind of support that people will need,” she explained. The death toll stands at 96 as of this report.

CNN's Tapper opened speculation by characterizing the cause of the blaze as being spurred on by "climate change [which] is fueling stronger storms, hotter temperatures, [and] more widespread droughts," according to the outlet in spite of no investigation into the cause of the wildfire being apparent or scarcely possible at this stage. The host also floated the proposition of a "climate emergency" to Hirono asking if President Joe Biden should declare the novel legal concept.

“I think that we very much need to acknowledge that climate change is upon us,” she replied. “There are whole states, by the way, Jake, where you can’t even use the words climate change because they still have a head-in-the-sand attitude.”

The Hawaiian senator did remind Tapper that wildfires are a fairly common occurrence in her home state but nonetheless linked them with climate change as did Democrat Governor Josh Green (D-HI). 

She said, "We need to be assessing our ability to contend with these kinds of natural occurring disasters which we are seeing more of,” she continued. “The frequency, the damage that is done, clearly this is happening all across the world.”

Green told reporters, “It is a product, in my estimation, of certainly global warming combined with drought, combined with a super storm, where we had a hurricane offshore several hundred miles, still generating large winds,” according to CBS News. 

Maj. Gen. Kenneth Hara, commander general of the Hawaii Army National Guard, told a press briefing Wednesday, "We don't know what actually ignited the fires, but we were made aware in advance by the National Weather Service that we were in a red flag situation — so that's dry conditions for a long time, so the fuel, the trees and everything, was dry," he added that the low humidity and high winds "set the conditions for the wildfires."

Maui resident J.D. Hessemer, who owned a business in Lahaina, later told 'CBS Mornings,' "The winds were just getting out of control. Power lines were down everywhere."