Climate change obviously plays a role, but it's not the primary driver.
I think some activist groups and the media are purposefully muddying the water on this issue.
http://mjr.jour.umt.edu/how-journalists-fan-the-flames-of-wi...
http://cliffmass.blogspot.com/2018/08/western-washington-smo...
(he's not an expert, so take it with a grain of salt)
I don't condone dishonesty or propaganda, but using these events to help point out that a) climate change is really happening, b) it's not just a few extra hot days during the summer, seems perfectly okay.
The consequences of bad forest management from earlier decades will still play out for a while longer, but now that the correct policies are in place, it will cease to become an excuse, while the consequences of climate change are only going to worsen. Forests have been increasingly drier and hotter. Logging activity has cut down the most fire resistant trees and replaced it with flammable young ones. Trump suggests to increase logging and blame the liberals. When politicians blame forest management from a century ago, it is an argument in bad faith, as a way to ignore the myriad impacts of climate change. We should be constantly improving our forest management, yes, but it's something already being worked on, while there is so much resistance to policies to reduce climate change.
FWIW, here in BC the 3 summers that we had fires coincided with the record beating heat.
In my experience, many of those in the disinformation bubble have no idea that climate change denial benefits oil and gas companies and is heavily funded by them.
If you’re interested in disinformation and how it affects climate change policy, the book and movie Merchants of Doubt is really great- it explains some of the strategies used.
Seems more like a reflection of the views of corporations than the public
You could give conservatives great environmental solutions for free, and they'd still reject them, because they know liberals would like it. They hate wind power, hate solar power, and it's got nothing to do with economics. Yet they like nuclear power. Why? Hippies don't like it.
And I don't think the politicians are close to blameless. They've cultivated this for 25 years. They're not just reflecting the will of the people, they're shaping it.
And as much as I want to blame politicians as an easy target, it's still a democracy and they are ultimately just reflecting the views of the public. The Seattle Times is running stories on the wildfire smoke, and their comment section is depressingly filled to the brim with nonsense like "ACTUALLY this is because the environmentalists clear out underbrush and create more forest fires, CHECKMATE LIBRULZ". We're going to sink under the waves still screaming culture war nonsense with our last breaths.