After devastating floods in the northeastern United States, President Joe Biden issued harsh words to warn of the consequences of climate change during a visit to the disaster area. The rapidly progressing changes in the climate correspond to the "red alert," said Biden. “The country and the world are in danger. This is not an exaggeration. That's a fact, "said Biden on Tuesday (local time) while visiting Queens in New York. In the southern state of Louisiana, around 400,000 households were still without electricity nine days after Hurricane "Ida". 1,500 firefighters fought forest and bush fires in western California.
"Climate change is an existential threat to our lives, to our economy - and the threat is here," said Biden.
The situation will not improve on its own, because the changes in the climate are progressing "at an unbelievable speed".
Biden spoke of a “turning point where we either act or we will find ourselves in real trouble.
Our children will be in real trouble. ”Now we must prevent things from getting worse, he said.
"Every part of the country is afflicted by extreme weather conditions"
The American President announced that he would therefore also like to take part in the UN World Climate Conference in November in Glasgow, Scotland. However, it initially remained open whether he wanted to travel in person or be connected online. Biden has declared the fight against climate change one of the most important goals of his administration. Severe weather following the hurricane "Ida" led to heavy rains with catastrophic floods in the northeast of the USA last week. Dozens of people died. The states of New Jersey and New York were hardest hit.
Before that, “Ida” had already wreaked havoc in the southern states of Louisiana and Mississippi, killing several people. "Ida" hit the coast southwest of New Orleans from the Gulf of Mexico at the end of August as a force four out of five hurricane and only weakened overland. In Louisiana, around 400,000 households were still without electricity on Tuesday.
With a view to the fires in the western United States, Biden emphasized during an inspection of storm damage in the state of New Jersey: "Every part of the country is hit by extreme weather conditions." He wanted to get an idea of the situation in California in the coming days. According to a situation report on Tuesday, around 15,500 firefighters were deployed in the state to fight 14 major forest and bush fires as well as smaller sources of fire. Since the beginning of the year, there has been a fire there over an area of a good 8,000 square kilometers. That corresponds to about nine times the area of Berlin.