Axios

Oregon Gov. Kate Brown (D) told CBS News' "Face the Nation" Sunday that the massive fires devastating the West Coast are a result of "decades of mismanagement of our forests in this country" as well as "the failure to tackle climate change."

Why it matters: President Trump has also insisted that the fires were "about forest management," but he's dismissed climate change. There's been a chorus of voices in the West Coast calling Trump out for his climate change policies or lack of.

"California is being pushed to extremes," the L.A. Times reports in today's lead story. "And the record heat, fires and pollution all have one thing in common: They were made worse by climate change."

Why it matters: "Their convergence is perhaps the strongest signal yet that the calamity climate scientists have warned of for years isn’t far off in the future; it is here today and can no longer be ignored."

Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti on Sunday rebuked President Trump over his claims that the California wildfires are simply a result of poor forest management, telling CNN's "State of the Union": "This is climate change, and this is an administration that's put its head in the sand."

Why it matters: There's a scientific consensus that climate change and the hotter and drier conditions it brings are among the forces that increase fire risks and severity. President Trump has questioned the existence of human-caused climate change and has started the process of withdrawing the U.S. from the Paris Climate Agreement.

Deadly wildfires sweeping the West have displaced tens of thousands of people, per AP, as officials in Oregon warn of a "mass fatality event."

Of note: 10 deaths have been confirmed in Oregon, 20 in California, and one in Washington state this fire season. Most fatalities have occurred this past week. The death tolls are expected to rise sharply in coming days.

Trump-appointed health department aides interfered with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s weekly COVID-19 reports “in what officials characterized as an attempt to intimidate the reports’ authors and water down their communications to health professionals,” Politico’s Dan Diamond reported late on Friday.

What it says: "[E]mails from communications aides to CDC Director Robert Redfield and other senior officials openly complained that the agency’s reports would undermine President Donald Trump's optimistic messages,” reports Diamond, citing emails reviewed by Politico and three people familiar with the matter.

A "safe little bubble" exists that's isolated from coronavirus — where people mingle without masks, ski, socialize and watch the pandemic unfold from thousands of miles away, AP reports.

The state of play: That place is Antarctica, the only continent without COVID-19. As COVID-19 has shaken diplomatic ties around the world, the 30 countries that comprise the Council of Managers of National Antarctic Programs decided to keep the virus out. Now, as nearly 1,000 scientists and others who wintered on the ice are seeing the sun for the first time in weeks, a global effort wants to make sure incoming colleagues don't bring the virus.

A new study finds that partisan conservative media led to "hurricane skepticism" among Trump voters before Hurricane Irma hit Florida in September 2017, discouraging evacuations.

Why it matters: As the divided response to the coronavirus pandemic underscores, how we view the world politically is increasingly determining how we view the threat of natural catastrophes. With extreme weather on the rise, that's a dangerous recipe.

Hundreds of people assembled at a church in Germany on Sept. 5 to hear an organ change chord.

The big picture: The organ at the church of St. Buchardi is playing the composer John Cage's Organ/ASLSP (As Slow as Possible), which is meant to take 639 years — so long that last week's chord change was the first in nearly seven years.

Wildfires in Oregon have put about 500,000 residents under evacuation notices and left dozens missing as first responders sift through the rubble, AP reports.

The state of play: State emergency management director Andrew Phelps said Oregon is "preparing for a mass fatality event," but has not yet published an official death count. At least six deaths have been reported, according to the state-operated dashboard.