'Biden Slams Trump's Failure To Address The Intensifying Climate Crisis Engulfing The West Coast'
'Biden slams Trumps failure to address the intensifying climate crisis engulfing the west coast.' Jake Johnson, Common Dreams, Sept. 13, 2020. Alternet.
As wildfires continue to tear through California, Oregon, and Washington state, engulfing entire communities and leaving utter devastation in their wake, Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden issued a statement Saturday connecting the blazes to the global climate emergency and slamming President Donald Trumps ongoing refusal to act. The science is clear, and deadly signs like these are unmistakableclimate change poses an imminent, existential threat to our way of life, said Biden.
President Trump can try to deny that reality, but the facts are undeniable. We absolutely must act now to avoid a future defined by an unending barrage of tragedies like the one American families are enduring across the West today.
Left unchecked, wildfires, and other extreme weather disasters will only continue to grow in frequency and intensity, endangering the lives of tens of millions of Americans, ravaging our lands and waterways, rendering the air unbreathable, and laying waste to our economic security, Biden continued. In the years ahead, there will be no challenge more consequential to our future than meeting and defeating the onrushing climate crisis.
Bidens statement comes amid progressive criticism of his failure to offer a full-throated endorsement of the Green New Deal, which the former vice president has described as a crucial framework without committing fully to the ambitious and popular policy. In July, as Common Dreams reported, Biden unveiled a $2 trillion green energy plan that climate campaigners called a welcomebut insufficientstep in the right direction.
Trump, meanwhile, was completely silent on the historic fires for a nearly three-week period until he mentioned the blazes in a tweet late Friday applauding the 28,000+ Firefighters and other First Responders who are battling wildfires across California, Oregon, and Washington. The president is expected to visit California on Monday to receive a briefing on the fires, which have burned millions of acres on the West Coast and destroyed hundreds of homes...
More, https://www.alternet.org/2020/09/biden-slams-trumps-failure-to-address-the-intensifying-climate-crisis-engulfing-the-west-coast/