President Joe Biden warned Americans on Tuesday that Hurricane Ida’s lethal destruction was the sure sign of a nation and world “in peril” from climate change and said drastic action would be needed to prevent extreme weather patterns from worsening.
“They all tell us this is code red,” Biden said from a neighborhood in Queens, New York, referencing scientific research that suggests a growing number of Americans are vulnerable to extreme weather events. “The nation and the world are in peril. And that’s not hyperbole. That is a fact.”
A trip through storm-battered areas of New Jersey and New York City gave Biden an opportunity to show his commitment to the federal government’s storm response and to build support for an infrastructure package that he has promised would help safeguard against future storms. While he was traveling, the White House sent Congress an urgent funding request for $14 billion to aid recovery from natural disasters that occurred before Hurricane Ida and to avert a government shutdown on Oct. 1.
Flanked by a number of Democratic politicians from New York, Biden said in Queens that the bipartisan deal would include investments to repair roads, pipes and bridges but would also include money to provide jobs that he said could ultimately make the country more climate-resistant.
“Climate change poses an existential threat to our lives, our economy, and the threat is here,” he said. “It’s not going to get any better. The question is: Can it get worse?”
The $1 trillion piece of legislation he was there to promote was passed by the Senate in early August and still must pass the House, but if enacted, it will touch nearly every facet of the U.S. economy and fortify the nation’s response to the planet’s warming. The $3.5 trillion budget plan Biden has proposed would go even further in fighting climate change but would require the support of all 50 Senate Democrats and more moderate members of the House.
But the White House indicated that more money would be needed in a faster time frame. The urgent request for funding sent to Congress on Tuesday forecast that billions more would be necessary to respond to Hurricane Ida; it also included $6.4 billion to assist the processing of Afghan evacuees overseas and in the United States.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times .