Obama opens two-day environmental tour in Lake Tahoe
WASHINGTON -- President Obama opened a two-day environmental tour Wednesday aimed at showcasing conservation efforts before traveling to Asia, where climate change is high on the agenda for his final trip to the region.
In Nevada on Wednesday, Obama visited Lake Tahoe and spoke at a summit dedicated to the iconic lake’s preservation. Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, who also is in his final year in office, has hosted the summit for 20 years and asked Obama to attend.
The president emphasized that conservation efforts are “critical for our entire ecosystem” and protecting lands is necessary to fight climate change.
“The challenges of conservation and combating climate change are connected -- they’re linked,” Mr. Obama said at the summit at Lake Tahoe. “We tend to think of climate change as if it’s something that’s just happening out there that we don’t have control over.”
Climate change is “man-made,” Mr. Obama said, adding that there is an overwhelming body of scientific evidence that proves “climate change is caused by human activity.”
The president said the administration is doing three things to help support conservation efforts: restoring watersheds, stopping invasive species and reducing hazardous fuels that spur wildfires, incentivizing private enterprises to pitch in and reversing the deterioration of the Salton Sea in California.
The White House said the Interior Department is dedicating $29.5 million to projects to improve forest health and reduce the threat of catastrophic wildfires in or near the Lake Tahoe region. The Environmental Protection Agency, meanwhile, is spending a smaller sum to improve the quality of the lake’s water by managing and reducing stormwater runoff in the region.
After the Tahoe stop, the president will head to the lush terrain in Honolulu, where he plans a speech to a gathering of leaders of island nations in the Pacific Ocean. The setting provides Obama a chance to emphasize a theme he’s returned to frequently in his climate campaign: that remote islands are the most vulnerable to rising sea levels and should help lead the fight to slow global warming.
To that end, Obama on Thursday planned an unusual presidential visit to Midway Atoll, a speck of land halfway between Asia and North America. Part of the U.S. Minor Outlying Islands, Midway played a key role for the U.S. military in World War II and was the site of a pivotal battle with Japan. Midway sits inside the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument, which President George W. Bush created and Obama expanded last week, making it the world’s largest protected stretch of ocean.
During an afternoon on the island, managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Obama was to be briefed on the environmental characteristics of the island. The White House said he also would “interact directly with the wildlife.” More than 7,000 species can be found there, including many that exist only in that region.
Obama’s conservation tour comes at the start of a busy trip to Asia, Obama’s final as president and one of his last opportunities to lock in his administration’s seven-year effort to expand U.S. engagement with Asia, including trade ties and cooperation on climate.
In China to attend the Group of 20 major economies summit, Obama planned to hold a formal meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping, who has become Obama’s unlikely partner in pushing for global action on climate. Environmental groups have been pushing Obama and Xi to use the visit to formally enter their nations into the sweeping global climate deal struck in Paris last year.
Before returning to Washington, Obama also was to become the first sitting president to visit Laos. He’ll meet with the country’s leaders and attend a pair of regional summits.