Summers in Maricopa County, Arizona, have become at times unbearable, Kyle Hawkinson said Friday. Smog and haze hung heavily over Phoenix, and residents were bracing for fire season, when the heat and air pollution would only grow worse. Climate change, he said, is at least partly to blame.
But when Hawkinson, a 24-year-old cashier, voted for Joe Biden in 2020, climate wasn’t really a factor in his choice, he said. As for voting in November, when the Arizona governor’s mansion and one of the state’s Senate seats are on the line, "that’s going to be a big maybe,” he said, adding, "Climate change is always going to be a problem. That’s just a given. Honestly, there’s only so much our leaders of the country can do.”
News Thursday that even a stripped-down compromise to address a warming planet appeared to be dead was greeted in Washington by brutal condemnations from environmentalists and Democrats, some accusing Sen. Joe Manchin, a Democrat representing West Virginia, of dooming human life on Earth.
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