Fox News host Tucker Carlson likened climate change to 'systematic racism in the sky' in a West Coast fires monologue

Fox News host Tucker Carlson likened warnings about climate change to "systematic racism in the sky" while speaking about the wildfires ravaging the US West Coast.

In a segment on Friday night, the "Tucker Carlson Tonight" host said that Democratic leaders are blaming climate change for the devastating wildfires in an attempt to intimidate people to vote for them.

"Climate change, they said, caused these fires. They didn't explain how exactly that happened. How did climate change do that?" asked Carlson. "In the hands of Democratic politicians, climate change is like systemic racism in the sky. You can't see it, but rest assured it's everywhere and it's deadly."

"And like systemic racism, it is your fault. The American middle class did it. They caused climate change. They ate too many hamburgers. They drove too many SUVs, they had too many children," he added.

Watch the clip below: 

In another clip of the segment, Carlson said there's "no evidence" that climate change contributed to the fires' severity.

Carlson claimed last year that the school strike for climate movement was part of a "coordinated left-wing protest" that adults had stage-managed for political purposes.

The host also compared the climate change movement to Mao's Great Leap Forward, saying: "And there you have the modern left's climate agenda: no drinking straws, no automobiles, no airplanes, no meat, no democracy," according to Deadline.

Experts say climate change is making fires stronger

Scientists have said the rising average year-round temperatures brought about by human activity cause stronger and deadlier fires along the West Coast. 

Daniel Swain, a climate scientist at UCLA and the National Center for Atmospheric Research, told CNN: "But climate change has not just made the extreme heat waves that coincided with the fires worse. The bigger effect is the more subtle, long-term warming."

"That couple of degrees of (average) warming over decades...you don't notice it as much, but it's still there lurking in the background, sucking extra moisture out of the vegetation and the soil," he added.

The wildfires, which have been going on for three weeks, have devastated much of the West Coast.

Last updated on Friday, this color-coded map shows more than 85 major fires that are burning from northern Washington to Southern California. 

On Friday, the governor of Oregon asked around 500,000 people to prepare to evacuate from their homes.

Meanwhile, wildfires in California have engulfed at least 3.1 million acres across the state as of Friday and killed at least 20 people, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Speaking to reporters from a charred mountainside, California Gov. Gavin Newsom said that the devastating fires show that the debate around climate change is "over."

"Wildfires are a big part of the seasonal challenge," Newsom said, according to CNN. "The challenge we're facing now is the extreme fire events that we believe are climate-induced."

"Just come to the state of California. Observe it with your own eyes," he added.

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