Biden calls climate change an ‘existential threat’

President Joe Biden has called the soaring temperatures from climate change an “existential threat”.
“I don’t think anybody can deny the impact of climate change anymore,” he said at the White House, where he held a video conference with the mayors of heat-blasted Phoenix, Arizona, and San Antonio, Texas.
The president said that heat is the “number one weather-related killer” in the United States, causing 600 deaths every year.
He also announced measures to bolster heat-related safety rules for workers – especially farmers, construction workers and others labouring outdoors – and additional funding for the weather forecasting service.
Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego told Biden that her desert city “is known for heat ... but right now this summer has really been unprecedented”.
“It’s taking a real toll on our community. We feel like we’re very much on the frontlines of climate change,” she said.
Addressing San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg on the video link, Biden quipped: “I hope the air conditioning’s working.”
An intensifying heatwave is meanwhile descending on the eastern United States, prompting warnings about the dangers presented by the sweltering heat and humidity in the final days of a record-smashing July around the world.
Some 180mn Americans – about half the population of the United States – are under heat watches and warnings, with temperatures and heat index values well above 100° Fahrenheit (37.8° Celsius) in the forecast until at least the weekend, the National Weather Service (NWS) said.
Officials in New York City, Washington DC, Philadelphia and other big cities urged people to avoid working or playing outside, to drink plenty of fluids and to check on loved ones and neighbours.
“The next four days will be extremely hot – take care of yourself and the people around you,” Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser said on X social media platform, formerly known as Twitter.
The nation’s capital was expected to see the heat index, a measure of what the temperature feels like to the human body, reach 107F (41.7C).
In Philadelphia, officials declared a health heat emergency and created a phone help line for the elderly, opened cooling centres and increased homeless outreach.
Cooling centres have also been opened across New York City for those who do not have access to air conditioning.
The heat index could reach 103F (39.4C) in the most populous US city.
“Heat is deadly, and climate change is making extreme heat more frequent and even more dangerous,” New York City Health Commissioner Ashwin Vasan said in a statement.
The growing frequency and intensity of severe weather is symptomatic of global, human-driven climate change that is fuelling extremes, experts in the field say, with current heat waves expected to persist through August.
June 2023 was the hottest on record in the United States, dating back to 1850. It also was the 47th consecutive June and the 532nd consecutive month with temperatures above the 20th-century average, according to the weather service.
This month is also shaping up to be a record-breaker on a global basis.
Thousands of tourists have been evacuated due to wildfires amid baking temperatures in Greece, while temperatures in a northwest China township soared as high as 52.2C (126F).
An analysis by Germany’s Leipzig University released yesterday found that July 2023 will shatter heat records, with this month’s mean global temperature projected to be roughly 1.5C (2.7F) above the pre-industrial mean.