‘The threat is here’: Joe Biden says climate change has reached ‘code red’ on visit to Storm Ida victims
President Joe Biden says climate change has reached “code red” and is now “everybody’s crisis”.
Mr Biden spoke as he toured New York neighbourhoods severely impacted by flooding when Ida brought record amounts of rain to the northeastern states, killing at least 64 people.
He met people whose homes were destroyed or severely damaged in New Jersey and Queens in New York City, stopping to hug one woman outside a wrecked home.
The president said the damage everyone is seeing, from wildfires in the West, to hurricanes in the South and Northeast, shows the time for action is now.
Mr Biden witnessed the damage left behind in Manville, New Jersey. Pic: AP
“The threat is here. It is not getting any better,” Mr Biden said in New York. “The question is can it get worse. We can stop it from getting worse.”
Some 27 people were killed in flooding in New Jersey, while in New York City, 13 people were killed due to Ida, including 11 in Queens.
Mr Biden repeated his warning when he visited Manville, New Jersey, also ravaged by Ida.
Mr Biden said we can prevent climate change from ‘getting worse’ if we act now. Pic: AP
He walked along a street in the Lost Valley neighbourhood of Manville, where the clean-up continues.
He spoke to adults and children, including Meagan Dommar, a new mother whose home was destroyed by fire as the flood occurred. She told him that she and her husband, Caesar, had left with the baby before the flooding, then returned to find destruction.
“Thank God you’re safe,” Mr Biden replied.
She said afterward she hoped the visit would speed help “along a little bit” and said she was grateful for the visit.
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NYPD try to rescue family from Ida floods
Although, not everyone was so welcoming. He was taunted by supporters of former President Donald Trump, who yelled that Mr Biden was a “tyrant”.
Later during a briefing with officials Mr Biden said: “Every part of the country, every part of the country is getting hit by extreme weather.”
He added that the threat from extreme weather events must be dealt with in ways that will lessen the devastating effects of climate change.
Not everyone was happy at the President’s visit. Pic: AP
“We can’t turn it back very much, but we can prevent it from getting worse,” he said. “We don’t have any more time.”
Mr Biden is hoping his plan to spend $1 trillion fortifying infrastructures, including electrical grids, water and sewer systems, against extreme weather will pass a House vote.
On Tuesday, the White House asked Congress for an additional $24 billion in disaster aid to cover the costs of Ida and other destructive weather events.
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Thousands of people gathered in various cities across the US as protests against Donald Trump and Elon Musk took place in all 50 states on Saturday.
Around 1,200 demonstrations were planned in locations including Washington DC, New York City and West Palm Beach, Florida – just miles away from where the US president has this weekend played golf.
The “Hands Off!” protests were against the Trump administration’s handling of government downsizing, human rights and the economy, among other issues.
In Washington DC, protesters streamed on the grass in front of the Washington Monument, where one person carried a banner which read: “Make democracy great again.”
Thousands gathered in Washington DC to rally against various Trump policies. Pic: AP
Pic: AP
Another protester took aim at Mr Trump‘s handling of Russia and Ukraine, with a placard that read: “Stop Putin’s puppets from destroying America.”
Tesla boss Mr Musk also featured on many signs due to his role in controversial government cuts as head of the newly created Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
Demonstrators in NYC. Pic: AP
People marching in Atlanta, Georgia. Pic: Reuters
A rally in Vermont. Pic: The Brattleboro Reformer via AP
Terry Klein, a retired biomedical scientist, said she drove to the rally to protest Mr Trump’s policies on “everything from immigration to the DOGE stuff to the tariffs this week, to education”.
“I mean, our whole country is under attack, all of our institutions, all the things that make America what it is,” she added.
A drone view of the protest at the Utah State Capitol building. Pic Reuters
A protester sports a Handmaid’s Tale costume. Pic: Reuters
Pic: Reuters
Some at the various protests carried Ukrainian flags, while others sported rainbow attire and waved rainbow flags in support of the LGBTQ+ community.
Other protesters wore Palestinian keffiyeh scarves and carried “Free Palestine” signs.
Thousands marched in New York City’s midtown Manhattan and in Boston, Massachusetts, while hundreds gathered in the sunshine outside the Utah State Capitol building in Salt Lake City, and in the rain outside the Statehouse in Columbus, Ohio.
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Mr Trump – who shook financial markets with his tariffs announcement this week – spent the day in Florida, playing a round of golf before returning to his Mar-a-Lago residence.
People protest in Manhattan. Pic: Reuters
Activists in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida. Pic: AP
Some four miles from Mar-a-Lago, more than 400 people gathered – and drivers honked their horns in support of protesters who held up signs including one which read: “Markets tank, Trump golfs.”
The White House has said Mr Trump plans to go golfing again on Sunday.
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