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President Biden visited California this week to showcase his efforts to better protect the state from threats. severe forest fires It burned more than two million acres, displaced thousands and brought those who intervened to the brink of extinction.

But Mr. Biden’s track record on wildfires, which includes more pay for firefighters and more money to empower communities against the flames, reveals an alarming truth, experts say: fires, at least in the short term.

“The effects of climate change cannot be eliminated in a single year,” said Roy Wright, who until 2018 was responsible for risk reduction at the Federal Emergency Management Agency. The goal, he said, “must be investments that will pay back.” The next three to five years.”

Federal action largely depends on Congress getting the new funding approved—but even if approved, that money might not make much difference anytime soon, because Zolan Kanno-Youngs and I wrote This week. And even then, reducing damage is largely up to state and local governments, and experts say it should reduce development in fire-prone areas.

According to Michele Steinberg, director of the wildfire division of the National Fire Protection Association, Mr. Biden could use the presidential megaphone to promote such restrictions. But that means competing against a deep American notion that land is something to be profited from rather than conserving or conserving.

Ms. Steinberg told me, “More, let’s take the value of this land that we can do now and let the next generation worry about it.”

The growing scale of fires: By 2018, the largest wildfires in the state rarely burned more than 300,000 acres, according to state data. Ranch fire destroyed in 2018 more than 400,000 acresand last year, the August Complex fire exceeded 1 million acres and the biggest flame in the history of the state. Just north of the Caldor fire is the Dixie fire, which has already burned more than 960,000 acres and is not yet contained. This fire could break last year’s record.

Democrats want a ‘Climate Corps’. They just can’t agree on how to create it.

Democrats are aiming to pour tens of billions of dollars into a New Deal-style program that will recruit young people to work on projects to protect communities and the environment from disasters that are increasingly devastating due to climate change.

Momentum for Civil Climate Alliances has been rising steadily since then. President Biden He called for its creation in March. While the program will not directly reduce greenhouse gas emissions that warm the planet, it is a top priority for environmentalists as part of a project. $3.5 trillion spending bill Democrats are hoping to get past this decline.

Republicans have denounced the program as a boondoggle that would create eco-protectors that “will let you know who’s watering their lawn, who’s fireplace is smoking,” as California Representative Tom McClintock recently warned.

But the biggest hurdle may be the Democrats themselves, who have yet to agree on how to design climate unions. Some want to fund the program under the umbrella of AmeriCorps, a federally funded national service program. Others advocated expanding existing apprenticeship and job training programs through the Department of Labor and other agencies. Legislation introduced by Massachusetts Senator Edward J. Markey and New York Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, both Democrats, would require that at least half of a climate union’s members come from “resource-poor need communities.”

Will they be able to come to an agreement? Read more about the discussion the full article is here.

quotation: “Any time you negotiate how to do it rather than whether to do it, you’re in a pretty good position. “We’re negotiating how to do it,” said Collin O’Mara, president of the National Wildlife Foundation.

Biden outlines a plan for cleaner jet fuel. But how clean would it be?

Flying is one of the hardest ways to travel to make it more climate friendly. We’re a long way from being able to fly from New York City to Tokyo in a battery-powered airplane.

But making the fuel used by airplanes more sustainable is an important step. Last week, the Biden administration and the airline industry announced an ambitious goal: to replace all jet fuels with sustainable alternatives by 2050.

As with most climate policy, the devil is in the details. How, depending on the type of alternative fuel we use, using billions of gallons could harm the climate, not help. This concern focuses on complex calculations to assess whether biofuels, an important subset of sustainable fuels, are truly climate-friendly.

quotation: “The problematic part is that today’s biofuels do not reduce greenhouse gas emissions. That’s not the case for science,” said Jason Hill, professor of bioproducts and biosystems engineering at the University of Minnesota. “They can actually make them worse.”

Upcoming climate-y events

Blooming Black: How do you find purpose, joy, and peace in the great outdoors? A Times event blooming blackexplores these questions at a virtual event September 19 as part of the Black History, Continued series. Get inspired to experience the outdoors experience with historian and writer Blair Imani and a performance by singer Mumu Fresh, and join a discussion about food justice on TikTok with Alexis Nikole Nelson, known as the Black Collector, and others. RSVP to join East this Sunday at 2 o’clock.

Netting Zero: In episode 10 of Netting Zero (a series of virtual events on climate, presented by The New York Times), The Times climate correspondent Brad Plumer meets with experts to discuss whether international freight is coming back or the age of cheap mobility is coming. on. respond now September 23, 13:30 to join us in the East.

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Summer nights are getting hotter

This summer has been unusually hot in the United States, especially at night. Minimum temperatures They were the warmest on record for each state in parts of the West Coast and Northeast. Most other states have approached record levels for nighttime temperatures from June to August.

This is part of a trend consistent with the predictions of climate models: in the United States, nights are warming faster than days. This effect is even greater in cities that are often warmer than their surroundings.

“At night, deserts get cold really fast, but our city doesn’t,” said Jennifer Vanos, a professor at Arizona State University’s School of Sustainability.

“It’s really hard for the human body to not have this break from the heat – it builds up,” he said. “Knowing the temperatures in Phoenix, we’ll be in the 90s overnight and sometimes as high as 110 during the day. None of this is safe for someone who doesn’t have access to air conditioning.”

The New York Times to see how summer nights have gotten warmer in recent years. 60 years of daily weather data from nearly 250 airports He kept consistent weather records in the United States.

One last thing:

In last week’s newsletter, a headline with the first photo misspelled the name of a town affected by Hurricane Ida. Lafitte, La., not Lefitte.

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