Last week, he quadrupled the size of the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument off the coast of Hawaii, banning commercial fishing and drilling from a huge area known for its coral reefs, sharks and seals.
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In Nevada, Obama paid tribute to picturesque Lake Tahoe, which at 22 miles long and 12 miles wide would cover all of California with more than a foot of water if it were emptied.
Obama, who is racing to cement his legacy on climate change before his presidency ends on January 20, will showcase both progress and looming threats in stops at Lake Tahoe, Nevada; Honolulu; and an ocean refuge in the remote Midway Atoll.
“This place is spectacular because it is one of the highest, deepest, oldest and purest lakes in the world”, Obama said.
The president says he won’t have as nice of transportation, but he intends to return to Tahoe as a private citizen when he leaves office after this year.
He says he’ll have to drive instead of ride in Marine One. Many listening to the president’s message moved to Tahoe from the Bay Area.
Obama said the extraordinary efforts that have been put into healing Lake Tahoe the past two decades prove it is possible to pass on the nation’s greatest natural treasures to future generations.
“Like the President’s visit to the Alaskan Arctic last summer and Yosemite National Park earlier this summer, this visit to the Lake Tahoe region provides another vivid example of the new challenges we face as climate change threatens communities and ecosystems through impacts like increasingly frequent and severe drought and wildfires”, the White House said in a statement.
Protecting the environment, he said, won’t happen “if we pretend a snowball in winter means nothing’s wrong…if we boast about how we’re going to scrap global treaties”.
He says leaders of the Native American Washoe Tribe that has called Tahoe its home for thousands of years had it right when they said that “the health of the land and the health of the people are tied together”.
“Beauty transcends politics”, Brown said.
Rep. Tom McClintock, a Republican from Elk Grove whose district includes the California side of the lake and who has called for less-expansive Tahoe funding, and is focused primarily on fire prevention, said he was not invited.
Although California Senator Dianne Feinstein has urged Congress since 2011 to approve more money under the Lake Tahoe Restoration Act, nothing has materialized.
The summit took place at an outdoor arena on the lake’s south shore where President Barack Obama delivered the keynote address.
President Clinton attended the first Lake Tahoe summit in 1997, also at the invitation of Reid, bringing national and worldwide attention to the fate of the lake, which is a popular resort area. The federal government has since spent about $2 billion on the health of the lake and the surrounding environment. The Nevada Democrat who is retiring this year also persuaded former President Bill Clinton to host the first Tahoe Summit in 1997. Jerry Brown and assistant U.S. Interior Secretary Janice Schneider.
Scientists are anxious about the loss of clarity in the alpine lake caused by a wide variety of factors over past half-century, including housing construction, storm-water runoff, automobiles and aquatic species. “We’ve got to strengthen all of them together”, Obama said. Warmer temperatures also increase the surface water temperature; a recent UC Davis report found that the lake is warming faster than ever recorded.
“Because of President Obama, the United States is leading the world in reducing unsafe carbon pollution”, he said.
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In Nevada on Wednesday, Obama plans to visit Lake Tahoe and speak at a summit dedicated to the iconic lake’s preservation.
