To that end, Obama planned an unusual presidential visit Thursday to Midway Atoll, a speck of land halfway between Asia and North America where Obama recently expanded a marine monument.
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“This place is spectacular, highest, deepest, purest lakes in the world”, Obama said. “Just as this place is sacred to Native Americans, it should be sacred to all Americans”.
The president says he will not have as nice a form of transportation, but he intends to return to Tahoe as a private citizen when he leaves office after this year.
Obama also used the Lake Tahoe Summit to unveil a host of new climate initiatives for the western USA that are set to mobilise millions of dollars of climate adaptation and clean energy investment.
Obama said in a speech at the 20th annual Lake Tahoe Summit on Wednesday that tourist-based economies like the one at Tahoe live or die by the health of the environment. Thanks to those efforts, scientists say the clarity in the lake has been steadily improving.
“When we protect our lands, it helps us protect the climate of the future”, Obama said, joined by Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid of Nevada, California Gov.
“Because of President Obama, the United States is leading the world in reducing risky carbon pollution”, he said.
Lake Tahoe has experienced intense climate effects in recent years:n 2015 it had its warmest average surface water temperature ever recorded, and the most severe western drought in possibly a millennium has also ravaged the region.
“You don’t have to be a scientist”, he said.
Following President Obama’s remarks earlier today at the Annual Lake Tahoe Summit on climate and conservation challenges, Deputy Secretary of the Interior Michael Connor and State of California Natural Resources Secretary John Laird signed a Memorandum of Understanding to strengthen coordination of management activities to benefit the Salton Sea, boost the region’s climate resilience, spur the region’s economic growth, and improve public health.
Reid and Sen. Diane Feinstein, D-Calif., said since that first summit, almost $2 billion has been spent restoring Tahoe.
Feinstein says she’s most impressed by the more than $330 million the private sector has contributed to the effort that has restored 1,500 streamside zones and added 2,700 linear feet of shoreline to public access areas.
Obama, who is racing to cement his legacy on climate change before his presidency ends on January 20, will make a rare visit to Midway Atoll on Thursday, deep inside the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument where he expanded protections last week. Many listening to the president’s message moved to Tahoe from the Bay Area. We can’t avoid the warming of Tahoe’s waters, but there are ways we can cut the pollution that would reduce the Lake’s clarity and supercharge the growth of algae and aquatic invasive species.
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Combating climate change has become one of Brown’s top political crusades during his final term as California governor, and he used his appearance Wednesday to highlight California’s efforts to slash greenhouse gas emissions and invest in renewable energy.
