Biden calls climate change "everybody's crisis", tours flood-hit NYC after Ida

U.S. President Joe Biden described climate change as "everybody's crisis" on Tuesday (Sept. 7) as he toured sites of deadly floods in the Northeast caused by Hurricane Ida. He warned America to be serious about the "red code" danger of climate crisis, pressed for investments to boost infrastructure and fight global warming.

Biden noted that disasters as wildfires, hurricanes and floods were hitting every part of the United States, with more than 100 million Americans affected this summer alone. The threat of climate crisis is clear with warnings coming from scientists, economists, and others who said the time for action is short.

"Folks, we got to listen to the scientists and the economists and the national security experts. They all tell us this is code red. The nation and the world are in peril. That's not hyperbole. That is a fact," Biden said in New York. "The threat is here. It is not getting any better. The question is can it get worse. We can stop it from getting worse."

Biden, who made fighting climate change a key plank of his 2020 presidential campaign, insists it as top priority of his first 4-year administration. However, some of his goals rely on getting the U.S. Congress to pass multitrillion-dollar legislation on infrastructure and other priorities.

According to a new Washington Post analysis of federal disaster declarations, nearly 1 in 3 Americans live in a county hit by a weather disaster in the past three months. Around 64 percent of residents live in places that experienced a multiday heatwave — a non-officially deemed disaster but is considered as the most dangerous form of extreme weather.

The expanding reach of climate disasters, a trend that has been increasing at least since 2018, shows the extent to which a warming planet has already transformed Americans' lives. The true test of this summer's significance will be in whether the United States can meaningfully curb its fast planet-warming emissions.