During a visit to Mather, California, on Monday, President Biden set his administration’s agenda to mitigate the effects of climate change, which studies say is responsible for increasing the severity of forest fires.
“We cannot ignore the reality that these forest fires are being overloaded by climate change,” the president said, while outlining the case of his Build Back Better plan that is currently being considered in Congress.
In response to concerns expressed by centrist members of his party, such as Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, that his Build Back Better infrastructure plan is too expensive, Biden rejected that a lukewarm response to climate change would be even more costly. .
“We have to think big,” the president said. “Thinking small is a recipe for disaster.”
The $ 3.5 trillion bill would enable a wide range of actions to reduce climate pollution, help communities at the forefront of increasingly frequent natural disasters, and invest in a number of national administration priorities. such as reducing the costs of childcare, health care and housing.
Manchin has said he will not support the price of the bill. In response, Biden noted that spending is spread over ten years and that the economic damage from allowing problems such as worsening forest fires can be more costly. “Every dollar we invest in [wildfire] resistance saves up to $ 6 when the next fire doesn’t spread as much, and those investments also save lives, ”Biden said.“ We have to think big.
Biden’s statements followed an introduction by California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat facing a by-election on Tuesday. The two men went through some of the damage caused by the Caldor fire, which has burned more than 200,000 hectares and destroyed more than 1,000 structures. A few hours after the event in Mather, Biden had planned to speak at a campaign rally on behalf of Newsom.
Earlier in the day, Biden met with state and federal officials fighting this year’s record wildfires in California and Idaho. Biden noted that more than 5.4 million hectares have been burned in the United States this year, an area larger than the entire state of New Jersey, including 2.2 million hectares in California.
In his statements, Biden pointed out the serious reality that many in the state face: that thanks to climate change residents have become accustomed to the ravages of the fire season each year.
“Everyone in Northern California knows the time of year when you can’t get out, when the air will be filled with smoke and the sky will turn [an] apocalyptic shade of orange, ”Biden said.
Still, Biden ended on an optimistic note, saying, “The United States was going to come together and we will overcome this climate change.”
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