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“Ignoring climate change is deadly,” Biden warns

“Ignoring climate change is deadly,” Biden warns

President Joe Biden warned Tuesday of the threat posed by extreme weatherin an appearance at the District of Columbia Emergency Operations Center.

“Summer has only just begun. Already, tens of millions of Americans are under heat warnings due to record-breaking temperatures,” he explained.

In late June, the southern Plains states and the South recorded temperatures approaching or exceeding 38 degrees Celsius. The heat index reached between 43 and 46 C.

“Ignoring climate change is deadly, dangerous and irresponsible,” Biden said. “These climate-driven extreme weather events not only disrupt people’s lives, they also cost money, damage the economy and have a significantly negative psychological effect on people.”

Biden said the United States suffered $90 billion in damages last year due to climate events.

District of Columbia Mayor Muriel Bowser said she has declared 34 heat emergencies since an emergency center for the city opened in 2023.

Biden highlighted his administration’s policies targeting climate change, including the Justice40 Initiative, which directs environmental support to underserved communities, a new Environmental Protection Agency report that will examine the ongoing health and climate change effects, and bipartisan infrastructure legislation aimed at lowering energy costs.

He also insisted on criticizing former President Donald Trump, his competitor in the 2024 elections, and other Republican politicians who support him on climate issues.

“They still deny that there is a climate change event, they must be living in some hole,” he said ironically.

Biden’s comments follow a series of weather events that extend beyond heat waves in the United States.

Hurricane Beryl, which was a Category 4 hurricane on Tuesday afternoon, broke records for the intensity of the season itself. The storm recently made landfall on the island of Carriacou in Grenada with winds of up to 240 kilometres per hour.

“The Atlantic, relative to the rest of the tropics, is the warmest I’ve ever seen it,” said Kerry Emanuel, a hurricane expert at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

As the Caribbean faces powerful hurricanes, other countries are experiencing their own extreme weather.

Greece is battling wildfires on its islands of Chios and Kos.

More than 140 firefighters, including eight specialist wildfire response teams, seven water-dropping aircraft and three helicopters, were seen trying to extinguish the blaze on Chios on Monday. More than 100 firefighters were on the scene in Kos, including reinforcements from Athens.

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