Bill Forte of North Sky Communications works on a fiber optic line during a heat wave affecting the Pacific Northwest in Lake Forest Park, Washington, USA, on June 26, 2021.
Karen Ducey | Reuters
With extreme heat waves and weather-related disasters becoming more frequent in the US, some politicians are growing more urgent in their call to action.
“The climate change bomb has exploded… The earth is screaming at us,” Washington state Gov. Jay Inslee said on ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday.
“There is good news,” he added, noting that “this is a solvable problem. But we must stop using fossil fuels. That is the only solution to this massive attack on humanity.”
The governor stressed both short-term measures and longer-term initiatives to reduce the use of fossil fuels. Washington state is switching to electric ferries and stopping the sale of internal combustion cars after 2035, Inslee said. He noted that “tremendous steps” have been taken as a result of President Joe Biden’s Reduced Inflation Act.
Palm Springs Mayor Grace Elena Garner, who also spoke on “This Week,” stressed the need for more resources from the federal government.
“In the short term, I would love to see more funding for EVs, walking and biking trails for more shade. And we’re doing that in Palm Springs…Those are really quick short-term fixes,” Garner said.
She stressed that more funding is needed for housing development to ensure that residents do not have to live outside in worsening environmental conditions.
“We don’t have enough money to build housing as quickly as we need to. And there are a lot of hurdles even when we do have the funds. So anything we can do to make sure people have safe places to live is critically important,” Garner said.
The United States must lead the climate fight “not only from a moral point of view, but from a [its] self-interest standpoint,” Inslee said. He pointed to the potential for new jobs and economic revitalization, such as battery companies entering the Midwest and turning the “Rust Belt” into the “Silicon Belt.”
“This is now the era of consequences. The bomb has gone off, but we have the ability to restrict fossil fuels. If we make the commitments that we need to,” Inslee said.
