“This is hallowed ground”, he said near a beach where young soldiers hunkered down under pillboxes, awaiting Japanese fighter planes during the World War Two Battle of Midway, one of the most-studied battles in military history.
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The remote coral reef also serves as a reminder of the dominance the USA has held in the Pacific since its World War Two victory there against Japanese forces.
“The biggest emitters, like my country and China, have a special responsibility to act to make sure that countries willing to do their part move past the dirty phase of development to move into a clean energy strategy”, he said.
The New York Times reported that Mr. Obama will go to Midway Atoll, a remote strip of land within the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument.
U.S. President Barack Obama will strive to put some final touches on key elements of his foreign- policy agenda and log progress on unfinished priorities as he leaves for Asia on Friday to plunge into a month of worldwide summits. The area is also home to threatened green turtles and endangered Hawaiian monk seals.
US President Barack Obama’s “victory lap” tour of Asia starting at the Group of 20 meeting on Saturday is being hobbled by diplomatic divisions over China’s overproduction of steel, Beijing’s meddling in the South China Sea and Apple’s tax dispute with Europe.
Ahead of his visit to the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument, Obama told a gathering of Pacific island nation leaders that conservation has been a key part of his presidency.
Obama will travel to the monument next week to mark the designation and cite the need to protect public lands and waters from climate change.
Obama spoke on the grounds of the East-West Center, near where numerous milestones of his early life took place: where his parents met, where he was born, where his grandparents lived, his early education in Mānoa and at Punahou School.
Obama says it’s important to examine the effects climate change is having on the Pacific Ocean.
With a stroke of a pen, President Barack Obama didn’t just quadruple the size of a national marine monument – he created the largest protected area on the planet.
Obama’s visit will focus on the challenge climate change poses to oceans and the need to expand upon worldwide agreements like the one he announced with Chinese President Xi Jinping in 2014.
The decision was controversial- but the president said it comes down to the importance of conservation.
Scientists say coral reefs are less vulnerable to changes in climate and chemistry if they are protected from other threats – that’s what the president is doing by banning commercial fishing and any new mining.
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The visit came as Obama uses his final months in office to try to lock in an aggressive legacy on climate change and environmental protection. The U.S. and China are expected to formally join the worldwide climate-change agreement reached in Paris in December. The Japanese attack in 1942 was a pivotal moment in World War II, with the USA delivering a resounding defeat that degraded the Japanese Navy’s capacity in the Pacific.
