Obama says climate change already damaging national parks
ASSOCIATED PRESS
President Barack Obama spoke by the Sentinel Bridge in the Yosemite Valley, in front of Yosemite Falls, which is the highest waterfall in the park at Yosemite National Park, Calif. today. The Obama family traveled to Yosemite to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the creation of America’s national park system.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
President Barack Obama spoke by the Sentinel Bridge, in the Yosemite Valley, in front of the Yosemite Falls which is the highest waterfall in the Park at Yosemite National Park, Calif. today.
YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK, Calif. » President Barack Obama said today that climate change is already damaging America’s national parks, with rising temperatures causing Yosemite’s meadows to dry out and raising the prospect of a glacier preserve without its glaciers someday.
“Make no mistake. Climate change is no longer just a threat. It’s already a reality,” Obama said from a podium, with Yosemite Falls, one of the world’s tallest at 2,425 feet, as a backdrop.
At the California park, where Obama was spending the weekend with his wife, Michelle, and daughters Malia and Sasha, the president also talked about how a rabbit-like animal known as a pika is being forced further upslope at Yosemite to escape the heat.
“Rising temperatures could mean no more glaciers at Glacier National Park. No more Joshua trees at Joshua Tree National Park,” he said, adding that a changing climate could destroy vital ecosystems in the Everglades and threaten such landmarks as Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty.
Obama spoke near Yosemite’s Sentinel Bridge, where views of Half Dome, a well-known rock formation in the park, and Yosemite Falls created a picturesque background behind him under a sunny, blue sky.
After a night with his family in a rented cabin in the popular park, Obama stuck to his usual routine by rising early today and heading to a recreation center on the grounds for his daily gym workout.
Don't miss out on what's happening!
Stay in touch with top news, as it happens, conveniently in your email inbox. It's FREE!
Obama’s weekend in the great outdoors was planned to encourage more people to appreciate and visit many of the nation’s parks. The National Park Services manages more than 400 sites around the country and celebrates its centennial in August.
48 responses to “Obama says climate change already damaging national parks”
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
Global warming…the most compelling issue surrounding our nation…don’t forget the manufacture and disposal of disposable diapers…
Muslim Radical Islamic Terrorism is spreading and cutting off heads and all this Pinocchio award winning clown from Kenya can do is spout about global warming!!!
218 more days!
Counting. Every. Second.
What is wrong with you people? Is everyone on the Advertiser’s Comments section right-wing conservative deniers? Guys! Hawaii is just as vulnerable. Look at all the homes and hotels way too close to the ocean. Wise up!
No big loss.
IRT JustBobF: Dear Bob, This is a small island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. just about everything here is close to the ocean. And it is a normal progression for these islands to slip back into the sea, just as it’s normal for a new island to rise from the depths.
PS Not all commenters here are right wing conservative deniers. Some are left wing “progressive” maroons.
President Obama has directed the United States Postal Service to REMEMBER and HONOR the EID MUSLIM holiday season with a new commemorative 44-Cent First Class Holiday Postage Stamp.
The same radical Muslims that blew up planes, trains, cars, skyscrapers, embassies, homo bars. He will let undocumented Syrians into the country to take the illegal and legal immigrants jobs. Better yet, they will take American citizens jobs. Better yet we will have to feed, clothe, harbor them for the rest of our lives. Then after he is out Hillary will take over if she gets elected. I hope you get it.
Better yet, they will take lots of American lives!
No, I’m not hoping for that, I’m just saying this would put us all at risk.
Homo bars?
Imbecile.
Better yet they will take repugs guns. Better yet they will take repugs guns and repug target shoot.
IRT NanakuliBoss: Typical. Too chicken to do it yourself. Going to get “they” to take the guns from hundreds of millions of people.
If you want it done, YOU do it. Don’t make someone else do the heavy lifting while you hide under your bed.
All you Obama bashers. He’s the PRESIDENT. He has to worry about more than one issue. It’s more than building a wall and being a blustery blowhard who’s position changes like the wind. I get it. There’s more important things in the world besides global warming. But like the General manager at your place of work, if you work, they have to deal with all types of issues on a daily basis. Just because you focus on one issue for a minutes, an hour or even a full day, it doesn’t mean he doesn’t care about terrorism or Muslin Extremists. Yes, yes, I know. He won’t say those words.
Transgender restrooms.
Yeah, it’s just too bad he doesn’t worry about any issues.
He is trying to salvage all he can to leave a feeble legacy (or lack thereof).
I’m afraid his legacy is set in motion. The complete destruction of what used to be the greatest country on earth. In the future people will talk about how things used to be and what the hell happened. I feel sorry for my son and all of those his age. History will show that Obama is a closet muslim and has been deceiving the American people with lies. The worst president in my life time!
It’s funny Obama is the one talking about how climate change has affected us.
President Obama maintains his status of having apparently the largest carbon usage footprint of any person in history. Obama’s energy consumption just for his travel and that of his family is enormous.
An entourage of 40 large black vehicles transport Obama to buy ice cream and books. None of these vehicles even remotely approach the 56.2-mile per gallon CAFE standards, which Obama is insisting will be in place in 2025 and forced upon we the people. The gasoline consumption of the Presidential limousine remains confidential.
The 747s used as Air Force One are rated at 5 gallons of jet fuel per mile (60 gallons per minute) by Boeing. The number of airplanes accompanying Obama’s Presidential travel can be in the dozens.
The Obama’s are also wasteful in their travels, with it not unusual for First Lady Michelle Obama to travel in a separate airplane. Mrs. Obama departed for Martha’s Vineyard early so she could have a few extra hours of vacation. It is estimated that her separate early departure cost we the taxpayers an extra $100,000.
President Obama repeatedly asks all of us to sacrifice and to do without. Obama is asking those who work the hardest, often not ever taking vacation time for themselves, to give more money to our Federal government to recklessly spend.
Don’t think for a second Hillary, if elected will do the same.
Obama’s Carbon Foot print is bigger than what the island of Crete excretes. (no pun)
Do as I say, not as I do.
What transpired in Orlando is not on Obama’s agenda.
Perhaps, he used his vacation trip to offset Climate change so people wouldn’t criticize him for taking another vacation on taxpayers cost?
The waterfall behind him doesn’t look like California is in a drought.
It’s an El Nino year. They had record snowfall this year and all the ski resorts had more snow this year than in the past decade. I had the chance to fly out and experience one of their famous blizzards at Mammoth Mountain back in November. I guess that compensates for the prior dry year they had.
Democrats are masters of lies and deception. The Democrats started the whole climate change scam, the Honolulu rail scam and the rising ocean level scam. Ask any climate change scientist to explain why ocean level on the West Coast is actually lower and keeps getting lower! YES LOWER SEA LEVELS! What happened to all the fear mongerers claiming we’re all going to get flooded?
Here’s a Q&A excerpt of someone asking scientists why the sea level actually decreased!!! haaaaaa
Source: Eric Rignot, a research scientist at JPL and a professor at UC Irvine
“Q. Why did California’s sea level fall during the last few decades?
A. Waters off the coast of the western U.S. have had lower surface temperatures, largely because of the Pacific Decadal Oscillation, or PDO. This pattern of wind, ocean current and temperature variations can bring warm or cold phases for several years — or even decades. Since 1998, some scientists say, we have experienced a cold phase that has counteracted the effects of climate change and prevented sea levels from rising.”
He’s now on vacation showing the fanily national parks much to their boredom.
I never listen to this guy anymore. As already mentioned, his carbon footprint over the past 7 1/2 years has been enormous and he has the gall to lecture us peons about
climate change formerly known as global warming. Climate change is part of the cycle on this planet. Man has only been tracking the weather since the late 1800’s.
In terms of geologic time, this is nothing in terms of being able to understand this planet’s weather cycles. We do know that the carbon dioxide level in past eons was way higher
than today and life flourished. Carbon dioxide is needed by plants as part of the photo synthesis process which is then turned by the plants into oxygen. Sounds like there are a
bunch of environmental whack jobs that could use some oxygen. It might help them if they removed their heads out of their butts for starters.
Interesting comment. I cannot listen to him anymore…even if I try his message comes across as “blah, blah, blah”…can’t focus on his lame rhetoric. Then there’s Hillary…
Just, blah and then let Obama take over.
He’s blocking the view again.
It’s an Al Gore puppet.
None of the unusual weather patterns and rising global temperatures interest you all? He and others who makes global warming an issue may not be as nutty as you think! My question is what can we do about it? Maybe all the little things we are made to feel guilty like burning trash, pollutions of our ocean,rivers, etc are manini compared to the pollutions of our atmosphere via satellite debris and other space activities!
Wiz, too little too late. Don’t blame America. All the major pollution comes from China, India, Mexico City where by the way all the major manufacturing jobs went. The toxic waste is so bad you can’t breathe. Obama is preaching to the wrong choir.
Dude! You sound like my brother: “All the pollution comes from older cars. I can drive as much as I like!” Shame on your guys!
Buy a Tesla!
Eat organic and no GMOs. Right?
According to Al Gore’s logic, organic food creates more heat! Organic food must be harvested faster and yields lower crop per square foot and requires more manual labor to rid of pests so the more labor the more heat is produced. I guess Obama will look at that logic and force the public to eat more Monsanto GMO crops since it’s more efficient and produces a lower carbon footprint.
Texas said they love this 1000 year floods. And that’s a repug state.
>>> President Barack Obama said today that climate change is already damaging America’s national parks,
It doesn’t matter what he says any more than it matters what Mitch McConnell says. We can see around us that the world is getting hotter, real fast. The glaciers at Glacier National Park are almost gone. I visited when I was a little kid, and again a couple of summers ago. Dramatic change.
Glad to see our President at Yosemite!
“Climate change is no longer just a threat. It’s already a reality,”
As it has been for the last million plus years.
At one time there were icebergs in Arizona.
At another there were temperate forests in northern Canada,
7000 years ago, North Africa had grazing animals and was likely grassland.
etc.
Obama, Hilary and Al Gore should blame those barbaric cavemen! All those primitive bonfires those irresponsible cavemen lit up to cook food were never EPA compliant and didn’t meet strict carbon emissions and resulted in the destruction of our glaciers! Today Obama and Hilary will blame the mass manufacturing of guns and ammo as the source of all current global warming leading to further destroy our planet so they will push their agenda to lie and deceive the public blaming them instead of blaming our volcanoes or the simple fact the this planet has been warming since the ice age even when we weren’t even around!
Here he goes again. What executive order is he going to issue now? No gas powered autos except his. No gas generated electricity except his. Etc. Etc.
What a waste of words. Just more rhetoric which is how he got elected. If you wanted a do nothing or do as little as possible President, that’s what we had for the last two terms. Unable to unite is a total failure on this part as the “CEO”, boss, owner, etc. Clinton hopefully will be better, e.g. knows more on foreign affairs including how to deal with what Obama called the JV team, ISIS. Just can’t believe what she says. But then again, Obama plays word games too along with most politicians.
It’s so entertaining to read the blathering of right wingers.
Congratulations for choosing a loser as a candidate for President!
Get ready for eight years of Hillary Clinton.
Hahahahahahaha, these losers are going to hari Kari when the Hill gets the Hill.
Let us not get “a-head” of ourselves, which we might if have to endure 8 more years and by the way it’s hara-kiri to be proper it is call seppuku.
The “Hill”. Is that what you guys call Leavenworth Now?
You’re going to be disappointed again, I’m afraid. There was no crime. So that means no indictment, no trial and no Leavenworth.
Keep dreaming of Trump!
You finally get it. You chose a loser. We must prepare for another 8 years of Obama.
It would be so refreshing if just one of your comments made sense. Maybe try for that this week?
Yeah, I’m sure 40 vehicle motorcades and Marine helicopters have nothing to do with it. Nor flying jumbo jets from FL. to CA. just to take yet another vacation.
Hypocrite
This was probably the first (and last) the NO-Bamas ever visited a Nat’l park. “Parks” aren’t their forte nor default vacation destinations.