Maybe you don’t care about pristine wilderness or the health of migratory waterfowl, but you ought to care that it was 130 degrees in Death Valley on Sunday, which is “perhaps the hottest temperature ever reliably recorded in the world.” It seems like a good reason not to expand the use of fossil fuels, but what do I know?

The Trump administration finalized plans Monday to open up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to drilling, a move that will auction off oil and gas rights in the heart of one of the nation’s most iconic wild places. Achieving a goal Republicans have sought for 40 years, it marks a capstone for an administration that has ignored calls to reduce fossil fuel consumption in the face of climate change.

The move will allow leasing on the 1.6 million-acre coastal plain, the center of a nearly pristine wilderness home to migrating caribou and waterfowl as well as polar bears and foxes that live there year-round. It marks a major step toward reviving fossil fuel development in an area that has been untouched for three decades.

This is one of those issues that would be of pressing concern even in a presidential election between a Democrat and a normal Republican. Simply put, the GOP is terrible on environmental conservation and even worse on Climate Change. President Trump is not an outlier in these areas.

There are a lot of reasons why it’s vitally important that Joe Biden win this election, but Climate Change could be at the top of the list, despite all the other things Trump has done that merit his defeat.