It’s not normal that children growing up in Detroit and across the
United States today will hold summer memories of wildfire smoke, heat alerts and flooded streets. It’s not normal for of Americans to wonder when they can safely spend an afternoon outside, or take a clean . It’s not normal for this summer to reach temperatures. But without urgent action from President Biden — leader of the world’s top of the
Oil and gas driving this crisis — this summer’s , catastrophic flooding and wildfires will be remembered as just the start of something much . That’s especially true for communities on the frontlines of fossil fuel , low-income communities and people of color who suffer the worst , and other . These deadly, unprecedented conditions will only get more the longer we extract and burn climate-heating fossil fuels. Calling it “ ” sets up a dangerous complacency. It also lets President Biden and those in power off the hook. This isn’t a moment for defeatism. It’s a moment for empowerment — to demand the climate action necessary to save millions of lives and preserve our planet and its ecosystems. That’s why thousands are preparing to of
New York on Sept. 17 to urge President Biden and other world leaders to phase out production of fossil fuels. The march comes ahead of
United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres’s landmark , where attending leaders will be expected to commit to no new fossil fuel projects and present their phaseout plans. President Biden can and must make this commitment — not just to join the summit’s first leaders in ending the fossil fuel era, but to regain the public trust in handling what he “ existential threat to humanity.” To be sure, the president has made important strides. The Inflation Reduction Act, his use of the Defense Production Act and a stack of clean-energy investments are boosting domestic manufacturing and deployment of renewable energy. If implemented well, the funds could reduce emissions and drive resilient energy systems. But these investments do not erase the devastating harm from the administration’s approvals of a disastrous onslaught of new fossil projects — from dozens of new or expanded along the Gulf Coast to the massive Willow Project in the Arctic. Even as
Canada burned and a toxic haze descended on the
White House, the administration made a deal with Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) to the Mountain Valley Pipeline, which threatens the air and water of Appalachian communities and could contribute nearly of greenhouse gas pollution every year. As long as the United States continues to extract dirty oil and gas and export it abroad, environmental justice communities at home will continue to suffer pollution and the planet will continue to burn. But none of this is inevitable. President Biden has more power than anyone on Earth to confront the climate threat facing us all and signal to world leaders that the fossil fuel era is ending. Here’s what he can do: Fossil fuels are driving this crisis. And normalizing the climate catastrophe we’re experiencing is exactly what the oil and gas industry wants so it can keep making record profits at the expense of our planet. There’s still time to rewrite our future and avoid the worst of climate catastrophe, but we need President Biden to move with urgency, courage and purpose. Nothing else will do. co-author of “ ” and “ .”