Since returning from vacation, President Obama has placed particular focus on the threats posed to the world by climate change, predicting a dark future for the planet.
During his visit to New Orleans to mark the anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, the president warned that more extreme weather events would continue to happen if Americans failed to act.
“[W]e’re going to see more extreme weather events as the result of climate change — deeper droughts, deadlier wildfires, stronger storms,” he said during his speech.
In an interview with New Orleans television station WWL-TV, Obama warned that stronger levees wouldn’t be enough to prevent future storm damage.
“We can build great levees, we can restore wetlands, but ultimately what we also have to do is make sure we don’t continue to see ocean levels rise, oceans getting warmer, storms getting stronger,” he said.
Next week, Obama plans to travel to Alaska to deliver a speech to highlight melting glaciers in the north.
“What we’re already seeing up in Alaska is some of the effects of climate change that over time drift down into the gulf and could have an impact on the wellbeing of the entire state of Louisiana and coastlines all around the country and all around the world,” he warned in his New Orleans interview.
Speaking to KIRO 7 news in Seattle, Obama warned that climate change was making Western wildfires worse.
“Each year we’ve seen it get worse, part of this has to do with climate change and it’s something we’re going to have to anticipate decades into the future,” he said.
President Obama is determined to make climate change one of the highlights of his second term, especially after announcing his expansive carbon emissions rules that would dramatically raise the cost of electricity.
After announcing his plan earlier this month, he explained that he wanted his grandchildren to be able to swim in Hawaii and still see glaciers during a mountain hike.
“There is such a thing as being too late when it comes to climate change,” he said.
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