Maybe all the attacks from left wing environmental groups are getting to Governor Hickenlooper. Yesterday, during a press conference on the lower North Fork fire tragedy, the Governor summoned his inner Al Gore and tried to lay blame at the feet of global warming for the wildfire that has taken at least two lives and destroyed at least 27 homes. 

No, Governor. That's not what happened. State bureaucrats started this fire, not melting ice caps.  

Here is what Governor Hickenlooper had to say (via Caplis and Silverman):

We recognize, everybody knows this, that we, it doesn't matter whether you believe in climate change or not, but we are seeing very unusual weather. Not just in this country, but all over the world. And certainly many people predicted that this is going to make Colorado a drier place with probably less of a snow pack.

Ah…if that's the case we need to be rethinking and aggressively challenging what our assumptions have been, and do we need to change them. Maybe they're perfect. But we better be rethinking them and working through them and challenging every basic assumption we start with to make sure we're doing everything we can to limit this kind of tragic situation.

The full Caplis and Silverman podcast is available here. Hick starts speaking at the 11:42 mark. 

Beyond Hick's struggles with speaking in complete sentences, his attempt to blame global warming rather than bureaucratic error, as everyone knows to be the case, is a poor political move. 

The state government, the very same one Hick is in charge of, screwed up. Plain and simple. Trying to politicize this tragedy is completely inappropriate and will likely backfire.

The government workers who started the fire have done the right thing and apologized. 

From The Colorado Observer's Leslie Jorgensen:

Meanwhile, the Colorado State Forest Service issued an apology for failing to keep the prescribed burn under control. The fire erupted March 26, four days after crews finished the planned 35-acre burn on Denver Water Board property, when strong winds carried embers across a road and into the forest.  

“This is heartbreaking, and we are sorry: despite the best efforts of the Colorado State Forest Service to prevent this very kind of tragic wildfire, we now join Colorado in hoping for the safety of those fighting a large fire, and mourning the loss of life and property,” said Forest Service deputy chief forester Joe Duda in a statement.  

The fire has killed two people–an elderly married couple–while another woman is reported missing. As of Wednesday evening the blaze had spread across 4,140 acres and destroyed 27 homes, according to Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman Jacki Kelley.

Governor Hickenlooper, stop blaming global warming and accept the blame that your state government has already apologized for. 

Polar ice caps have nothing to do with wind blowing embers into a forest. Nothing. 

(Burned Tree photo credit: The Colorado Observer)

(Polar Bear photo credit: FreeDigitalPhotos.net)