Environment Obama Addresses Climate Change in Visit to Everglades

EVERGLADES NATIONAL PARK — On Wednesday, President Obama addressed climate change during a visit to Everglades National Park, calling it a threat to the park and surrounding communities. Obama also said, "This is not a problem for another generation, not any more. This is a problem now."

Official photo

With elections less than two years away, Obama's Earth Day speech seemed an effort to contrast the differences in beliefs of his party and that of the Republican party in the face of the 2016 elections, and was done in a swing state where the issue of rising sea levels due to climate change is seen by scientists as a particularly potent threat.

Democrats have accepted the scientific data which advises tha humans are largely responsible for climate change and support policies to lower carbon emissions, while Republican politicians have largely expressed skepticism of either the existence of climate change or whether it is man-made.

Senator Marco Rubio has questioned the science of the issue, saying, "I do not believe that human activity is causing these dramatic changes to our climate." Former Gov. Jeb Bush said in 2011 that while he thought global warming "may be real," he questioned whether it is man-made. He also said that the issue (which NASA has advised as having a 97 percent consensus among scientists) does not have scientific unanimity.

Gov. Rick Scott famously said that he wasn't a scientist when asked about the issue during his re-election campaign in May of last year, and a recent report has indicated that his administration has been censoring use of the phrase 'climate change' by state employees.

Alluding to the censorship scandal, Obama said on Wednesday that "climate change can no longer be denied. It can’t be edited out. It can’t be omitted from the conversation. And action can no longer be delayed." Obama also stated that "simply refusing to say the words ‘climate change’ doesn’t mean that climate change isn’t happening."

Despite the consensus among scientists, many Americans remain skeptical about the danger that the issue poses. A 2014 Gallup poll revealed that 42% of the public believe the threat of climate change as portrayed in the news *to be 'greatly exaggerated', while 33% say the issue 'generally underestimated', and 23 percent say it is 'generally correct'.