Fires show climate change an existential threat, says Biden

Dense smog from US bushfires that have burnt more than 2 million hectares and killed 31 people smother the West Coast.

Dense smog from US bushfires that have burnt more than 2 million hectares and killed 31 people smothered the West Coast on Saturday (Sunday AEST), as presidential challenger Joe Biden warned climate change is becoming an existential issue.

US officials girded for the possibility of further deaths as wide stretches of land in California, Oregon and Washington remained cut off by flames fuelled by tinder-dry conditions of the kind caused by climate change.

“The science is clear, and deadly signs like these are unmistakeable — climate change poses an imminent, existential threat to our way of life,” said Mr Biden, the Democratic nominee who will face President Donald Trump at the polls on November 3.

“President Trump can try to deny that reality, but the facts are undeniable.”

The political row comes as Mr Trump prepares to visit California on Monday for a briefing on the fires, which he has previously sought to blame on mismanagement by state officials.

Worsening the sense of environmental catastrophe, all five of the world’s most air-polluted cities on Saturday were on the West Coast, according to IQAir, with dense smog and ash from the blazes coating the atmosphere from Los Angeles up to Vancouver in Canada.

In Portland, thick, choking smoke blanketed the downtown area Saturday morning. “It is as if I had smoked 100 cigarettes. I’ve never seen this but we try to stay positive as conditions are getting better,” said a 37-year-old man who gave his name only as Jessie.

More than 20,000 firefighters are battling the blazes, as officials warn that a respite provided by the arrival of cooler weather could end on Monday with the return of warmer, drier weather.

Emergency official Andrew Phelps warned Oregon is “preparing for a mass fatality incident based on what we know and the number of structures that have been lost”.

In California, Butte County sheriff Kory Honea said additional officials had been brought in to check for human remains, but “right now, the areas that we need to search are too hot”.

Oregon suffered another four deaths in 24 hours, bringing the West Coast region’s death toll last week alone to 19. Among them was a 13-year-old boy found in a car with his dog in his lap in Oregon. The road was so hot it had melted the tires as he tried to flee.

One 56-year-old woman said she and her daughter don’t know if their ash-caked house in Aims, a short drive east of Portland, is still standing. “To be honest, if we have to rebuild, we have to rebuild … I am just thankful that we’re alive,” she said. “We saw a bird that was flying and then all sudden it just completely dropped out of the sky … if it’s killing God’s creatures, I don’t want to die too. So we left.”

California has already seen more than 1.2 million hectares burn this year — an annual record — with almost four months of fire season still to come.

Governor Gavin Newsom painted a grim picture of California as the canary in the climate change coalmine. “This is a climate damn emergency,” he said as he toured the damage in Butte County. “This is real, and it’s happening.”

Huge bushfires are becoming more common; the World Meteorological Organisation says the five years to 2019 were unprecedented for fires, especially in Europe and North America.

Climate change amplifies droughts that dry out regions, creating ideal conditions for fires to spread out of control and inflict huge material and environmental damage.

Nine people have been confirmed dead in Butte County, where fires were driven at unprecedented pace last week by strong, dry winds and soaring temperatures. In a rare sliver of good news, a believed tenth victim turned out to be a burned anatomical skeleton from a local classroom.

Two more people died near the rural community of Happy Camp last week, while eight more perished in California last month.

In Washington state, a one-year-old boy perished while his parents suffered severe burns as they attempted to flee an inferno 210km east of Seattle.

AFP