Climate Crisis Triggers Wildfires, Prompting Biden to Advocate for a Rebuilding Plan

On Monday, Joe Biden journeyed to California to observe wildfire destruction as the state experience a catastrophic fire season that plans on outdoing the one of 2020, the worst fire season in the state that is on record.

(Photo : Getty Images)

Climate Crisis 

Biden is using his trip to point up the link between the climate crisis and the increasingly severe wildfires in the west as he seeks to rally assistance for a spending plan of $3.5tn which congress is discussing.

The president pointed to flames blazing through the west to make an argument for his plan. He called year-round flames and other severe weather a climate crisis reality to which the nation cannot turn a blind eye any more.

Biden's visit to California is among a two-day exploration of the west which includes stopping at the National Interagency Fire Center in Denver, Idaho, and Colorado. When the president was in California, he also campaigned with Gavin Newsom, Democratic governor of the state, who on Tuesday faces a recall election.

Speaking next to Newsom before touring areas damaged by the wildfires in northern California, the president said this summer's massive flames that had rocked the area "are being supercharged by climate change".

Also Read: California's Devastating Dixie Fire Now 2nd Largest Wildfire in State's History

Extreme Weather 

The president said: "It isn't about red or blue states. It's about fires. Scientists have been warning us for years that extreme weather is going to get more extreme. We're living it in real time."

Newsom spoke before the president, warning that California was experiencing extremes the kind that has never been experienced in the state's history.

When the president visited Boise, Idaho earlier, he echoed the statement he made the previous week while touring Hurricane Ida's damage, emphasizing that the dangers of the climate crisis are a bipartisan problem. 

The president said: "It's not a Democrat thing, it's not a Republican thing. It's a weather thing. It's a reality. It's serious. And we can do this. We can do this. And in the process of building back, we can create jobs."

(Photo : Getty Images)

Biden's Rebuilding Plan

The president argued for using funds now in order to make the potential effects of the crisis inexpensive, the same as what he did during recent stops in New York, Louisiana, and New Jersey, all places that put up with millions of dollars in flood and other ruins and death scores following Hurricane Ida.

With the aim to increase support for his rebuilding intention, Biden said every dollar used on "resilience" would preserve $6 in costs for the future. The president said efforts must exceed just rebuilding damaged systems and make sure communities can hold out against catastrophic weather.

Prior to his visit Monday, the president issued a disaster declaration for California, responding to the Caldor fire, that damaged 782 homes, consumed 342 sq miles, and prompted tens of thousands in the Lake Tahoe Basin to evacuate their homes.

Related Article: Worsening Climate Crisis May Intensify Global Water Shortage, Says New Report

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