Obama on a conservation drive
MIDWAY ATOLL (Northwestern Hawaiian Islands): President Barack Obama plunked down on a speck of coral reef in the middle of the Pacific Ocean yesterday and gazed out at the turquoise waters of the marine monument he has widened to become the largest in the world.
Hundreds of albatrosses and rare birds fluttered in the skies halfway between Asia and North America as the president paid an unusual visit to Midway Atoll, one of the most remote areas of the ocean. Driving on a golf cart past dilapidated buildings left over from World War II, Obama said protecting the atoll and its surroundings was critical to ensuring delicate ecosystems survive the throes of global warming.
“I look forward to knowing that 20 years from now, 40 years from now, 100 years from now, this is a place where people can still come to and see what a place like this looks like when it’s not overcrowded and destroyed by human populations,” Obama said.
Few Americans have ever visited Midway, with its blackfooted albatrosses and spinner dolphins. His visit to the atoll – home to fewer than 50 people – was carefully orchestrated to showcase natural beauty mostly untouched by humans, part of the president’s bid to instill calls for conservation with a sense of real-life urgency.
Squinting in the sunlight, Obama described Midway Atoll as “hallowed ground”, a nod to the place it occupies in Native Hawaiian tradition. Yet Obama had a policy argument to make, too: it was critically important to examine what damage climate change is inflicting on communities in the Pacific Ocean.
“There are countries that now are at risk, and they have to move as a consequence of climate change,” Obama said.
The president, who was born a short hop away in Honolulu, appeared particularly enthralled by a cluster of threatened green sea turtles – each the size of a tyre – enjoying a bit of beach repose. “Unbelievable,” he called them, peering out through sunglasses.
“When I grew up, you’d see these turtles all the time,” Obama said. “But you’d never see them beaching like this, basking in the sun.”
Yet for all the pristine splendour, there were poignant reminders that even this dot of far-flung land hasn’t been immune to human contamination. Along the muddy pathways the president travelled, brightly coloured bits of plastic lined the ground – all remnants of albatrosses that had ingested waste washed ashore and then died with the bottle cap-shaped pieces in their guts.
The visit came as Obama uses his final months in office to try to lock in a legacy on climate change and environmental protection. – ANA-AP