As his professional and parental duties approach a new phase, President Barack Obama is taking a family vacation this weekend to the caverns here and to Yosemite National Park, echoing a similar trip he took seven years ago when his daughters were smaller and his hair not almost so gray.
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President Barack Obama greets attendees before speaking in Yosemite National Park in California, Saturday, June 17, 2016.
Before arriving at Yosemite National Park in California, Obama and his family had toured a fascinating underground cave at Carlsbad Caverns National Park, New Mexico. The president was 11 when he went to Yellowstone on his first visit to a national park.
President Obama’s remarks at Yosemite will probably remind Americans that he has made environmental conservation a significant part of his presidential legacy through his use of the 1906 Antiquities Act, which allows presidents to unilaterally declare national monuments.
The White House said the Obama administration has protected more than 265 million acres of public lands during his tenure, more than any other president in history.
Obama also used the backdrop to call for more action on preventing climate change, which he has said is the greatest threat facing future generations.
“We’ve got kids all across the country who never see a park”, he said.
Despite economic and climate change talk, there was no denying Obama was enjoying his time with family on Father’s Day weekend in one of America’s most famous national parks, remarking several times about the beauty of where he was standing during the speech.
Obama said: “We can’t treat it like it’s someone else’s problem, it shouldn’t lead to careless suggestions that we don’t get serious about carbon emissions or that we scrap an worldwide treaty that we spent years putting together to deal with this”. First time I saw a bear and her cubs.
“The parks belong to all of us”, Obama said.
In his weekly radio and internet address, Obama said he’s thought a lot about parents who’ve had to explain the shooting deaths of 49 people at an Orlando, Florida, nightclub to their kids.
While Obama’s last two budget requests included more money for the parks in anticipation of a surge of interest for the centennial celebration, Congress hasn’t approved his request.
And NBC notes it takes $820 million each year to maintain the national parks, but funding falls short year after year.
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“When we look at the next century, the next 100 years, the task of protecting sacred space is even more important”, Obama said. Obama said of Yosemite. “We’re not going to sell them off to the highest bidder”.
