Biden attacks Trump's climate policy as wildfire ravages US west coast

WASHINGTON - US Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden on Monday criticized President Donald Trump's denial of climate change, calling the latter a "climate arsonist" as he addressed an audience in the state of Delaware about the ongoing wildfire sweeping the country's west coast.

Biden, the former US vice president, mentioned in his speech a broad range of natural disasters, including the wildfires raging across the western states like California, Oregon and Washington, the flooding hitting the Midwest, and the hurricane battling the Southeast, blaming Trump's inaction in curbing global warming for causing those catastrophes.

"What we're seeing in America, in our communities, is connected to all of this, with every bout with nature's fury caused by our own inaction on climate change," Biden said.

"If we give a climate arsonist four more years in the White House, why would anyone be surprised if we have more of America ablaze? If we leave a climate denier with four more years in the White House, why would anyone be surprised when more of America is underwater. We need a president that respects science, understands that the damage from climate change is already here. Unless we take urgent action, it will soon be more catastrophic," he said.

Biden has incorporated his climate plan into his economic vision, viewing it as a way to create jobs. With a focus on funding for research and development, the plan is aimed at a transition to cleaner technologies, including electric vehicles and renewable energy, as well as a requirement that all power be free of carbon by 2035.

"When Donald Trump thinks about climate change, he thinks hoax. When I think about climate change I think jobs," Biden said.

"Here's the deal. Hurricanes don't swerve to avoid red states or blue states. Wildfires don't skip towns that voted a certain way. The impacts of climate change don't pick and choose. That's because it's not a partisan phenomenon," he added.

Trump traveled to California on Monday to inspect the situation there, denying the role of climate change in the wildfire that blocked the sun and turned the sky red.

"It'll start getting cooler. You just watch," the president told a roundtable at McClellan Park, California. When a panelist expressed the opinion that science disagreed with the president's claim, he pushed back by saying "I don't think science knows actually."