On June 28, 2021, people take a break at the Oregon Convention Center cooling station in Portland, Oregon, as a heat wave sweeps throughout much of the United States. Getty Images | Kathryn Elsesser | AFP President Joe Biden will hold a virtual meeting with Western governors on Wednesday to discuss the U.S. drought and heat waves, which are worsening due to climate change, as well as how the country can better prepare for what might be a record-setting wildfire season. The summit takes place as a terrible heat wave sweeps the Pacific Northwest, knocking out electricity to thousands of people, and the United States’ West battles the worst drought in two decades. Early in the season, the circumstances have already sparked wildfires in California, Nevada, and Washington. Vice President Kamala Harris is among those in attendance, as are Democratic governors from Oregon, California, New Mexico, Nevada, Washington, and Colorado, as well as Republican governors from Utah and Wyoming. Members of the Cabinet and business executives are expected to attend. During peak fire season, California, which is dealing with low reservoir levels and snowpack, will have the greatest firefighting force in history on the ground. After experiencing its worst season on record last year, the state has asked citizens to reduce their electricity use in order to minimize blackouts in the event of flames. Following a discussion last week with the head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency about the government’s disaster readiness, the president is expected to raise federal firefighters’ pay to $15 an hour. In May, Biden said that FEMA will increase money available to cities and states to assist them prepare for catastrophic weather events from $500 million to $1 billion this year. Climate change is causing increasingly frequent and severe weather disasters, prompting experts to call for quick action to reduce global greenhouse emissions in order to avoid the worst effects of global warming. Nonetheless, measures to combat climate change, increase investment to confront worsening disasters, and shift the country to a clean energy economy were left out of Biden’s recent bipartisan infrastructure accord. Democrats must now pass a separate reconciliation bill to address those provisions./n
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