Obama on Thursday will tout his decision to expand the Papahanaumokuakea (pah-pah-hah-NOW’-moh-koo-ah-KAY’-ah) Marine National Monument, which includes Midway and is becoming the world’s largest stretch of protected waters.
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The view out the window of Air Force One, with President Barack Obama aboard, over a nearby island as the airplane approaches Midway Atoll in the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument in the Pacific Ocean, September 1, 2016.
Obama flew three hours west of his native Honolulu to Midway Atoll, on the far northwestern tip of the Hawaiian island chain.
Like his visit previous year to the Alaskan wilderness, Obama hopes his stop in a remote and threatened environment will prompt more Americans to take climate change seriously.
“What we have said to the Chinese – and we’ve been firm consistently about this – is you have to recognize that with increasing power comes increasing responsibilities”, Obama told CNN’s Fareed Zakaria, referring to ongoing disputes with China about aggression in the South China Sea, cyberattacks and economic policies. Less than 5 percent of American voters say the environment is the most important issue facing the country, according to Reuters/Ipsos polling between July 24 and August 21, and 35 percent say climate change will not affect the way they vote in the November 8 election to pick Obama’s successor.
Yet for all the pristine splendor, there were poignant reminders that even this dot of far-flung land hasn’t been immune to human contamination.
Still, the wealth of biological diversity here is almost unparalleled: millions of birds, hundreds of species of fish and marine invertebrates, green sea turtles and Hawaiian monk seals.
The island wildlife refuge is described by those who have been there as a kind of “Garden of Eden” where the world’s oldest-known albatross returns each year to nest and the electric blue ocean teems with fish.
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. With the expansion, the size of the monument will increase by more than four times.
Obama is on his way to China for the G20 summit, where he will meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping to announce that both countries will ratify a United Nations global warming treaty. For which, the departments will signs an agreement with Hawaii’s Department of Natural Resources and Office of Hawaiian Affairs.
The White House estimated that the region’s longline fishing industry would suffer about a 6 percent loss as a result of making the expanded area off-limits to commercial fishing.
Getting Obama to Midway required an unusual degree of logistical gymnastics, considering that the atoll lacks cell service and other modern amenities and only a few dozen people live there.
The World War Two Battle of Midway, one of the most-studied battles in military history, tipped the balance of the U.S fight against the Japanese navy.
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Stay on topic – This helps keep the thread focused on the discussion at hand. They discussed a wide range of foreign policy topics, as well as the President’s views on Donald Trump and his base of support.
