That's Joe Biden who spent the last few days touring the devastation from Hurricane Ida and warning about extreme storms exacerbated by climate change. Last week, the President went to Louisiana, where thousands of people still lack power after Ida roared ashore — though, thankfully, levees held after being strengthened in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.
Remarkably, Ida was not at its deadliest place on the Gulf Coast where winds reached 140 mph, but a thousand miles away when it hit New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Connecticut and New York. Flash floods, tornadoes and high winds left at least 50 dead in the Northeast and in the process killed vulnerability faced by coastal cities amid global warming.
For decades, scientists had warned of extreme weather, it would be more extreme and climate change was here and we're living through it now, Biden said on Tuesday in New Jersey in the latest stop of his wild weather tour. One analyst warned on CNN that forecasters may have to come up with a new level on the Hurricane magnitude scale — Category Six — if storms turned into monsters by warmer seawater get much worse. The US climate crisis has also sparked severe wildfires and drought this year.
Biden does have a plan. His $1.2 trillion infrastructure deal with Republicans and a $3.5 trillion spending plan are packed with investments designed to reduce carbon emissions and develop efficient energy and energy efficient vehicles and modes of transport. The bill is critical to US hopes of showing leadership at November's global climate meeting in Scotland.
There's a problem, though. Sen. Joe Manchin, a moderate democrat from West Virginia whose votes are key to passing bills in a 50-50 Senate, is having second thoughts about a 3 trillion-plus spending spree Manchin says he is concerned about inflation. But it is probably not a coincidence that he was a fierce defender of his storied coal-producing state. He expects a call from Biden pretty soon.
I think we're at one of those inflection points where we either act or we're going to be in real trouble; our kids are going to be in real trouble, president said.
The scenes of tens of thousands of people crammed together was too much for the government's top infectious diseases specialist Dr. Anthony Fauci.
Fauci's comments won't happen for much time. There is not much chance that the stadiums will suddenly close. The massed crowds are a sign that many Americans - especially the youth - have come to the end of their tether with Covid -19 restrictions, even as the pandemic hits historic levels in some states. In an apocryphal quote attributed to legendary Liverpool FC Manager Bill Shankly, football is not a matter of life and death; it's more important than that. At the very least, Fauci said, events like football games should require vaccinations Other experts warn that mass crowds are likely to seed new outbreaks of the disease, especially as the weather cools and people spend more time indoors.
By this point, everyone in America - and near everywhere else - feels like the pandemic is endless. It's like climbing a mountain and then scaling a steep slope, realising that the summit still looms far above.
Nonetheless, Biden may try to instill a sense of urgency on Thursday. The White House is vowing a new six-point strategy to consign the crisis to the past. But if more than 1,500 new Covid-based deaths a day will not convince vaccine skeptics to change their minds, the chances of them being moved by another presidential speech seem slim.