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... Why it matters: This year's devastating hurricane season has exposed the perils of Trump's war on climate experts, who have long warned that human-caused global warming is exacerbating extreme weather.

- - - Through warming ocean and air temperatures, climate change makes hurricanes like Helene and Milton more destructive " and more likely to rapidly intensify all the way through landfall.

- - - The catastrophic back-to-back storms tore through the Southeast just weeks after climate scientists reported Earth's hottest summer on record.

Zoom in: Trump, who is potentially 23 days from winning back the White House, has sought to weaponize the Biden administration's hurricane response while still downplaying the existence of climate change.

- - - He's called climate change a "hoax" and a "scam," railed against President Biden's clean energy policies, and urged Big Oil executives to fund his campaign in exchange for him slashing fossil fuel regulations.

- - - "Remember when they used to say 'global warming?' They don't say that anymore. They say 'climate change' because the planet's actually getting cooler," Trump falsely claimed at a rally last month. ...