With the West Coast Burning, Biden calls Trump a “Climate Denier” and “Climate Arsonist”

With wildfires raging in California, Oregon, and Washington State, Joe Biden spoke on the need to combat climate change and blamed Donald Trump for exacerbating the problem, calling him a “climate change denier” and “climate change arsonist.”

Biden started off by telling the American People that the nation faces four crises, stating:

“As a nation, we face one of the most difficult moments in our history, in my view. Four historic crises all at the same time. The worst pandemic in a hundred years, it’s already killed nearly 200,000 people and counting. The worst economic crisis since the Great Depression has cost tens of millions of American jobs and counting. Emboldened white supremacy unseen since the ’60s and a reckoning on race that’s long overdue. And undeniable acceleration of the punishing reality of climate change on our planet, and our people, on the lives and livelihoods, which I like to talk about now.”

The Democratic Nominee then listed all the fires, hurricanes, heatwaves, droughts, and flooding disasters that many Americans have faced the last several years, in addition to the COVID 19 Pandemic, commenting that NASA satellites can see the West Coast fires from “one million miles away in space.”

The former Vice President then proceeded to chastise Mr. Trump, stating:

• “These are interlocking crises of our time. Requires action, not denial. Requires leadership, not scapegoating. It requires the President to meet the threshold duty of the office to care, to care for everyone, to defend us from every attack scene, seen and unseen, always and without exception.”
• “And as he flies to California today, we know he has no interest in meeting this moment. We know he won’t listen to the experts or treat this disaster with the urgency it demands, as any President should do during the national emergency. He’s already said he wanted to withhold aid to California to punish the people of California because they didn’t vote for him. This is another crisis. Another crisis he won’t take responsibility for. The West is literally on fire. And he blames the people whose homes and communities are burning. He says, “You got to clean your floors. You got to clean your forest.”
• “Donald Trump’s climate denial may not have caused these fires and record floods and record hurricanes, but if he gets a second term, these hellish events will continue to become more common, more devastating and more deadly.”
• “Meanwhile, Donald Trump warns that integration is threatening our suburbs. It’s ridiculous, but you know what is actually threatening our suburbs? Wildfires are burning the suburbs in the West. Floods are wiping out suburban neighborhoods in the Midwest. Hurricanes are imperiling suburban life along our coast. We have four more years of Trump’s climate denial, how many suburbs will be burned in wildfires? How many suburban neighborhoods will have been flooded out? How many suburbs will have been blown away in superstorms? If you give a climate arsonist four more years in the White House, why would anyone be surprised if we have more America blaze? If we give a climate denier four more years in the White House, why would anyone be surprised when more of America is underwater?”
• “It’s clear that we’re not safe in Donald Trump’s America. This is Donald Trump’s America. He’s in charge.”
• “When Donald Trump thinks about climate change, he thinks hoax. When I think about it, I think jobs.”
• “When Donald Trump thinks about renewable energy, he sees windmills somehow as causing cancer.”

Mr. Biden then pledged that he, as President, would respect the science and treat climate change as what it is: a crisis.

He also said that he would combat climate change and modernize the nation’s infrastructure at the same time by:

• Helping to create thousands of good union jobs in sustainability and clean energy infrastructure jobs.
• Bringing the country’s water and transportation systems into the Twenty-First Century.
• Developing conservation tools.
• Bringing the country back into the Paris Climate Agreement.
• Encouraging the purchase of more electric cars and the construction of more electric charging stations.
• Building a million and a half energy-efficient homes.
• Constructing a carbon-free electric sector.
• Creating a Civilian Climate Corp to clean up and “heal public lands.”

Biden closed by stating:

“We have a choice. We can commit to doing this together because we know that climate change is the existential challenge that’s going to determine our future as a country for our children, our grandchildren, and our great-grandchildren, or we can do it Donald Trump’s way. Ignore the facts, deny reality, which amounts to a full surrender and a failure to lead. It’s backward-looking politics that’s going to harm the environment, make communities less healthy, and hold back economic progress while other countries race ahead. And it’s a mindset that doesn’t have any faith in the capacity of the American people to compete, to innovate, and to win.”

“Like the pandemic, dealing with climate change is a global crisis. And that requires American leadership. It requires a President for all Americans. So as the fires rage out West on this day, our prayers remain with everyone under the ash. I know it’s hard to see the sunrise, believing today will be a better day than yesterday. Americans face this historic inflection point. A time of real peril, but also a time of extraordinary possibilities. I’m confident. I know we can do this. We will do this. This is the United States of America. We’ve seen the light through the dark smoke. We never give up. Always without exception, every time, we succeed when we try.”

“May God bless our firefighters and keep them safe, and our first responders. May God protect our troops. Thank you very much. I’m anxious to hear what the President had to say. Thank you.”

Climate Change is a vital issue for voters to consider when choosing the next President,  legislators, and state and local leaders.

Voters should not pick the people who deny rising sea levels on Florida’s coast, wildfires on the west coast, the growth of hurricanes and droughts are the result of a changing climate.

People need public servants who know windmills do not cause cancer and climate change is real.

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