Obama Marks Earth Day at the Everglades

[Content Note: Climate change.]

President Obama made a trip to the Florida Everglades to deliver his Earth Day speech:

President Barack Obama arrived at Everglades National Park on an overcast and muggy Wednesday to deliver an Earth Day speech intended to connect climate change impacts already unfolding in the imperiled wetlands of South Florida to wider risks across the nation.

...In addition to making an economic, public health and national security case for confronting the risks of rising seas, the president was expected to tout his administration's record on tackling environmental problems, including imposing a historic cap on carbon pollution and spending $2.2 billion on Everglades restoration projects. He further plans to unveil new ways to assess the value of the country's national parks, including a study that shows protected wild lands play a major role in keeping carbon out of the atmosphere. Visitors to parks also poured $15.7 billion into surrounding communities, the administration said.

...In addition to highlighting his environmental record, Obama's trip is intended to pressure Republicans into a more robust climate-change debate. Voters will elect Obama's successor in 18 months, and the GOP field so far is teeming with would-be candidates who question whether climate change is man-made, despite significant scientific scholarship concluding that it is largely a result of carbon emissions.

In addition to the fact that his giving a speech on climate change is just the right and necessary thing to do, I also want to note that this comes the week after Democratic nominee frontrunner Hillary Clinton announced that climate change would be a central part of her campaign, making her the first presidential candidate ever to do so.

As I previously noted, because there are already stories about whether President Obama is doing enough to help Hillary Clinton, or whoever the eventual presidential nominee is, I want to point out—and I will continue to point this out, whenever I see it—the crucial assists the President is giving to the next Democratic nominee.

Here, he's not only setting up climate change as a Democratic priority, but he's also challenging the Republicans to get on board or look like the dangerous fools that they are.

There are, of course, plenty of reasons to criticize the Obama administration's environmental record. I suspect, regrettably, that there will never be a US President about whom I won't be obliged to say the same, despite the fact that I will keep expecting more. But provided Clinton is serious about meaningfully addressing climate change, this is another big assist to the (at this point) likely nominee.

And, provided Clinton is serious, and it helps her get the nomination and then get elected, the President keeping a spotlight on climate change is a big assist to environmental activism and thus to us all.