By USA Today Editorial Board
Our View: Heat dome (click here) killed hundreds in the Pacific Northwest as global temperatures rise. Biden infrastructure bill is a good start to protect America.
Not long ago, climate change for many Americans was like a distant bell. News of starving polar bears or melting glaciers was tragic and disturbing, but otherworldly.
Not any more.
Hundreds died in unprecedented triple-digit heat in Oregon, Washington and western Canada late last month when a "heat dome" of enormous proportions settled over the region for days. Some victims brought by stretcher into crowded hospital wards had body temperatures so high, their nervous systems shut down. People collapsed trying to make their way to cooling shelters....
When is the USA media going to catch up with their global peers that discuss the climate crisis and the remedies all the time. This is a real issue for USA allies and the USA still sits back and leaves everything to chance. That time is OVER.
Dust storms where they have never been before. People dying in wrecked vehicles when they had no clue about the size and scope of the problems they were facing. The dangers in sandstorms are not much than blizzards. There is no help coming anytime soon.
Another thing. Tankers carrying chemicals and gasoline and liquid natural gas; at what temperature does the outside heat make it's' way into the inside and the cargo explode? The same goes for trucks transporting nuclear waste. YES, IT IS GOING TO GET THAT HOT!!!!!!!
When I state the USA is not nearly ready for what is coming, I mean there is nothing within the infrastructure of this country, and probably the same holds true for Canada, that will ensure that mass catastrophe of exploding tankers, be they trucks or train, won't happen.
Chemical plants, fertilizer plants, and all those places, including delivery tankers of oxygen to hospitals have not even begun to have plans in place to prevent mass catastrophe. The USA's vital infrastructure is not in step with what is going to happen with rising global temperatures.
When President Biden says there need to be mass amounts of investment in infrastructure he means it.
The USA with Republican denial of THE TRUTH has postponed any and all investment needed to protect this country from the climate crisis. Now, that the USA is at the precipice of catastrophe, the country finally has a moral man in the White House that sincerely cares about the future of the democracy and the people.
It is very heartening to read the endorsement of President Biden and his path forward for the USA in regard to Climate.
