“I have to say that Teddy Roosevelt gets the credit for starting the National Parks system, but when you include a big chunk of the Pacific Ocean, we now have actually done more acreage than any other president”, he said. This is a file photograph – President Obama talks to the White House Press Corps in the WHBR about the progress.
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President Barack Obama boards Air Force One at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, adjacent to Honolulu, Hawaii, Thursday, Sept. 1, 2016, en route Henderson Field, Midway, Atoll, Northwestern Hawaiian Islands. But the President hopes the trek will help underscore the efforts he’s taken to preserve some of the world’s threatened ecosystems.
Two-dozen bird species, including the black-footed albatross and red-footed booby, occupy the island, as well as dozens of coral reef-dwelling fish in the surrounding water.
The region is home to more than 7,000 species, including green turtles, endangered Hawaiian monk seals, various seabirds and a newly discovered octopus scientists nicknamed Casper.
Obama is set to spend about six hours on Midway, according to his public schedule.
He was expected to tour the 2.4-square-mile atoll and receive a briefing from U.S. Fish and Wildlife officials who manage it.
The World War II Battle of Midway, one of the most-studied battles in military history, tipped the balance of the US fight against the Imperial Japanese Navy.
Numerous military buildings on Midway Atoll have been allowed to decay, and visitors have not been allowed since 2012 because of tight budgets, which dismays Jim D’Angelo, 79, a retired oncologist and history buff in Bradenton, Florida. Former first lady Laura Bush also visited Midway during her husband’s presidency.
Environmental groups have been pushing both leaders to use the visit to formally enter their nations into the sweeping global climate deal struck in Paris a year ago.
He made his case for taking action during remarks near Lake Tahoe Wednesday, warning against electing leaders who deny warming temperatures are the result of human activity.
But this trip is even closer to Obama’s heart, aides said. “It’s not ‘we think it is man-made, ‘ it’s not, ‘we guess it is man-made, ‘ it’s not, ‘a lot of people are saying it’s man-made, ‘ it’s not, ‘I’m not a scientist so I don’t know.’ You don’t have to be scientist”.
“When it comes to climate change, there’s a dire possibility of us getting off-course, and we can’t allow that to happen”, Obama said.
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The Pacific visit is part of a ten-day trip to address climate change and attend the G20 summit in China alongside President Xi Jinping, with whom Obama worked during the Paris climate conference to try and cut carbon emissions around the world. Since then, however, the president has designated many more, including a nearly 90,000-acre national monument in Maine’s Katahdin woods, which was unveiled last week, three new national monuments in the desert of Southern California: so huge that they almost doubled the total amount of land he had conserved at the time, in mid-February 2016.
