|
Climate change-fueled wildfires continued to rage across the West over the weekend. Montana's Elmo Fire tripled in size nearly overnight, while the nearby Moose Fire in Idaho burned over 48,000 acres. Meanwhile, Governor Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency for Siskiyou County, California after the McKinney Fire grew to over 80 square miles in just two days. On Friday alone, Texas firefighters responded to 17 new wildfires amidst triple-digit heat.
These recent fires come on the heels of other major wildfires this summer, including the Calf Canyon/Hermits Peak Fire in New Mexico that burned nearly 300,000 acres and left the area's water supply contaminated with ash and debris, and the Washburn and Oak Fires near Yosemite National Park, which threatened a grove of ancient sequoias.
The severity of the fires in the West this year is not an unfortunate coincidence. These fires are the result of climate change-fueled drought and heat, and a history of poor forest management practices. These fires will continue to worsen unless Congress and the Biden administration take urgent actions to slow climate change and mitigate its impacts.
Luckily, there is a narrow opportunity for the U.S. to act on climate with the revived climate bill expecting a vote in the Senate this week. With Senator Joe Manchin on board, the fate of this bill now rests in Arizona Senator Kyrsten Sinema's hands. If this bill does not pass the Senate, President Biden can and should take executive action on climate. As CWP's Aaron Weiss describes in a recent blog, President Biden has tools at his disposal to act on climate change, he just needs to use them.
|
