Biden surveys Ida Storm damage in New Jersey, New York — warns of ‘code red’ moment on climate change by Seung Min Kim
President Biden on Tuesday warned of a “code red” moment on climate change as he toured two northeastern states ravaged by the remnants of Hurricane Ida, while his administration prepared to ask Congress for billions in federal aid to respond to last week’s storm and other natural disasters.
Biden, in his second Ida-related visit in less than a week, used his trip to press for robust action to combat climate change and focus attention on his expansive domestic infrastructure agenda in Congress. Predicting that natural disasters will continue to occur with “more frequency and ferocity,” Biden said the “nation and the world are in peril” and implored passage of his “Build Back Better” plan, which will be drafted on Capitol Hill this month and is expected to include funding to deal with the warming planet.
In his visits Tuesday, Biden also referenced findings from a Washington Post report that found nearly 1 in 3 Americans live in a county hit by a weather disaster in the past three months — illustrating the expansive reach of the destruction wrought by climate change.
