奥巴马总统在2015年地球日（Earth Day）来到大沼泽国家公园，推动采取行动，保护自然景观和民生免受气候变化后果的影响——如海平面上升、特大风暴和干旱等。

反对对气候变化采取行动的批评者坚称，减少碳基燃料的使用将会牺牲就业和经济生产力。奥巴马总统在活跃着大量野生动物的大沼泽国家公园亚热带野生景区中，对此作出回应。他说，恰恰相反，大自然创造经济机会。

奥巴马说，“2014年有近3亿游客访问了我们的国家公园，消费近160亿美元，支持了27.7万个工作岗位。所以从经济角度来说，保护我们的国家公园是一个明智的做法”。

在奥巴马政府强调对气候变化采取行动的紧迫性的同时，美国政府高级官员正在紧锣密鼓为今年年底在巴黎举行的联合国气候变化大会（U.N. Climate Conference）作准备。来自全球的谈判代表届时将努力敲定一项具有约束力的协议，降低加剧气候变化的碳排放量。

美国根据奥巴马总统2013年推出的《气候行动计划》（Climate Action Plan）正在向这一目标迈进。该计划指导全国逐渐向清洁能源经济过渡，而且温室气体排放量已经比2005年时大幅下降。

奥巴马把应对气候变化列为他总统任期结束前的一项关键任务。他已指示政府各部门官员对针对未来气候变化制定应对计划。


Protect a park. Save the planet.
 
A fragile Florida landscape is recovering from decades of damage done by developers and agribusiness. Now, the Everglades National Park, bordering the Gulf of Mexico, is threatened by the rising seas expected from climate change.

President Obama went to the Everglades on Earth Day 2015, promoting actions to protect landscapes and people from the consequences of climate change — rising oceans, extreme storms and droughts, just to start.

Critics of climate change responses argue that reducing use of carbon-based fuels will sacrifice jobs and economic productivity. In the midst of the Everglades, a subtropical wilderness teeming with wildlife, President Obama said that, on the contrary, natural spaces build economic opportunity.

“In 2014, almost 300 million visitors to our national parks spent almost $16 billion and supported 277,000 jobs,” Obama said. “So protecting our parks is a smart thing to do for oureconomy.”

The Obama administration is raising the urgency of action on climate change as top officials count the months to the U.N. Climate Conference in Paris at year’s end. Global negotiators will attempt to hammer out a binding deal on lowering the carbon emissions that cause climate change.

The United States has been on the path to that goal, guided by the Climate Action Plan introduced by President Obama in 2013. The plan directs the nation’s transition to a clean-energy economy and has already significantly lowered greenhouse gas emissions from 2005 levels.

Obama has made the response to climate change a critical issue for the remaining period of his presidential term. He’s ordered officials in every corner of government to plan for what’s to come.