Obama, “Protect the one planet we’ve got.”

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama called for more forceful efforts to combat climate change during his State of the Unionaddress on Tuesday. Obama said the United States will double the rate in which the U.S. cuts carbon emissions alongside China, which, for the first time, also committed to limit their emissions.

“No challenge, poses a greater threat to future generations than climate change,” said Obama, “and because the world’s two largest economies came together, other nations are now stepping up.”

Obama said that scientists at NASA, NOAA and around the world agree that our activities are responsible for climate change. If nothing is to be done the rising oceans, longer lasting heat waves, dangerous droughts and floods can trigger conflict and hunger around the globe.

“Fourteen of the 15 warmest years on record have all fallen in the first 15 years of this century,” said Obama.

The Pentagon released a report in October 2014 asserting Climate Change is an issue of national security and will be a major contributing factor to instability around world. It also predicts more pressure for disaster relief in response to more humanitarian crises. The strain on life sustaining food and water can trigger mass migrations.

In his speech Obama criticized those who have tried to “dodge the evidence”, and asserted he will not let this Congress “turn back the clock on our efforts.”

 

By Jackson Fang, Intern