In order to protect the Grand Canyon from uranium mining, US President Biden declared the area a nature reserve. But his climate policy has also been criticized.
More than 3,500 kilometers from Washington, in Arizona, Joe Biden gets a friendly welcome. Indigenous Americans make music, and otherwise the mood on the television pictures seems relaxed. Because the US President is implementing what many peoples have long fought for: North and south of the world-famous Grand Canyon National Park, large new protected areas are being designated, so-called National Monuments.
Biden visits endangered tribal peoples’ homeland
“We are pleased to hear that the President is finally hearing the voices of the original peoples of the Grand Canyon,” said Carletta Tilousi, who belongs to the Havasupai, an indigenous people who live at the bottom of the Grand Canyon.
For years, Tilousi has fought against uranium mining near her village and in areas her people hold sacred. Uranium mining has led to many diseases in their communities, Tilousi told a local broadcaster.
A symbolic gesture? Joe Biden shakes hands with a Havasupai tribesman.
World heritage in danger: uranium mining in the Grand Canyon
Since the 1950s, uranium has been mined in the vicinity of the distinctive deep gorge. By the turn of the millennium, there were thousands of mining permits on public lands that were also the spiritual homes of several indigenous peoples.
Former President Barack Obama initially suspended uranium mining, while President Biden is now ensuring that no new mining rights can be awarded.
Preserving this land is not only good for Arizona, it’s good for the planet. It’s good for the economy and the soul of the nation. And I’m convinced it’s the right thing.
Bidens climate protection policy also receives criticism
But there is a contradiction: The new protected areas hurt ranchers and mining and increased dependence on Russia and China, says Mitt Romney, the Republican Senator from Utah.
Interior Minister Deb Haaland contradicts: There are places that are not suitable for dismantling, she said on the PBS broadcaster – such as the landscape around the Grand Canyon with its places of worship and its special ecosystems.
Hundreds of billions of dollars for climate and environment
Biden has declared environmental and climate protection to be important goals of his presidency and signed what he claims to be the largest climate protection law in the history of the world a year ago: hundreds of billions of dollars for the promotion of new energies and for incentives to buy electric cars, for example : “All of these historic actions have put us on track to halve all American emissions by 2030. We’re on the right track!”
Apparently, many US citizens know little about Biden’s climate goals
The only problem is that the voters don’t know anything about it. Polls show most of them have no idea what’s in Biden’s climate package and how it could benefit them. Worse for Biden, they are mostly dissatisfied with the way he is tackling climate change.
For the President, that means in the near future: travel, travel, travel. He will make around 120 stops in almost 40 states. The election campaign has long since begun.