Joe Biden in California to tackle climate change and help Governor Gavin Newsom

Joe Biden has flown into the scorched western states to hammer home his case on climate change and the need for big public investments.

California Governor Gavin Newsom greets Joe Biden at Sacramento airport as the President continues his tour of western states. Picture: AFP

Joe Biden has flown into the scorched western states to hammer home his case on climate change and the need for big public investments, on a trip in which he will also campaign in California’s recall election.

A whistle-stop tour took him through Idaho, where he met firefighters who are among the tens of thousands of personnel battling huge blazes gripping the region, as it shrivels under a record drought.

He also flew over scorched forest in northern California to see part of the more than 8000sq km of the state that has been burned already this year.

Scientists say man-made global warming is changing the climate, making bushfires more destructive and more frequent.  “We have to think big,” the US President told an audience near California’s state capital, Sacramento.

“Thinking small is a prescription for disaster … We’re going to fight this climate change.”

Mr Biden’s trip is aimed at highlighting his push to sell multi-­trillion-dollar legislation aimed at renewing America’s failing infrastructure so that it is better able to cope with the changing climate.

“Each dollar we invest in resilience saves up to $6 down the road when the next fire doesn’t spread as widely. Those investments save lives,” he said.

“When I think about climate change, I think about, not cost, I think about good paying jobs we’re creating.

“But I also think about the jobs we’re losing due to impacts in the supply chains and industries, ­because we haven’t acted boldly enough.”

The President is focusing on what is becoming a familiar message on the urgency of an issue that has sparked huge fires and floods – both of which have devastated different areas of the country in ­recent months.

“The reality is, we have a global warming problem,” Mr Biden told firefighters earlier in Idaho, echoing the scientific consensus that human activity is affecting the ­climate. “Things aren’t going to go back to what they were. It’s not like you can build back to what it was ­before.”

Mr Biden, who has broken with the climate change scepticism of his predecessor Donald Trump, recently said the world faces a “code red” on climate change and called for parties to put aside their political differences to address the issue.

He was met in Sacramento by Californian Democrat Governor Gavin Newsom, who is facing a recall vote that could cost him his job.

The pair headed later to Los Angeles for a last-minute rally in which Mr Biden was expected to offer Mr Newsom his full backing.

Californians will vote on Wednesday AEST on whether to oust Mr Newsom, 53, in a recall election prompted by Republicans angered over Covid-19 mask mandates, a high cost of living and skyrocketing homelessness in the nation’s wealthiest and most populous state.

A similar vote 18 years ago ­allowed Arnold Schwarzenegger to win California’s governorship.

On paper, Mr Newsom, a former mayor of San Francisco who was easily elected Governor in 2018 and whose term does not end until next year, does not risk much in a solidly Democratic state. After a shaky start, he now ­appears likely to avoid defeat, with respected poll-crunching website fivethirtyeight.com predicting more than 55 per cent will vote to keep him.

But Democrats are still taking the vote seriously, knowing that a surprise recall is always possible, especially if turnout is low.

Mr Newsom has attacked his Republican opponent Larry Elder, 69, for suggesting the result will be a “stolen election”, echoing Mr Trump’s refusal to concede the 2020 presidential poll amid groundless claims that it was rigged.

“His (Elder’s) closing argument is filing a lawsuit because of the voter irregularities in this race with no evidence whatsoever,” Mr Newsom said at the weekend. “It’s act two of the big lie.”

AFP