{"id":23362,"date":"2013-01-21T12:08:07","date_gmt":"2013-01-21T18:08:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/?p=23362"},"modified":"2013-01-24T14:09:25","modified_gmt":"2013-01-24T20:09:25","slug":"obama-vows-to-tackle-climate-change-in-inaugural-speech","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/2013\/01\/21\/obama-vows-to-tackle-climate-change-in-inaugural-speech\/","title":{"rendered":"Obama Vows to Tackle Climate Change in Inaugural Speech"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_23368\"  class=\"wp-caption module image right\" style=\"max-width: 300px;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/2013\/01\/21\/obama-vows-to-tackle-climate-change-in-inaugural-speech\/obama-rodrigues\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-23368\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-23368\" title=\"obama.rodrigues\" src=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2013\/01\/obama.rodrigues-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2013\/01\/obama.rodrigues-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2013\/01\/obama.rodrigues-620x413.jpg 620w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2013\/01\/obama.rodrigues.jpg 640w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Photo by Filipa Rodrigues for KUT News.<\/p><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Feeling the Heat: President Obama said the country had a duty to act on climate change in his speech.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Citing &#8220;the devastating impact of raging fires and crippling drought and more powerful storms&#8221; President Barack Obama put tackling climate change on a list of goals for his second presidential term today.<\/p>\n<p>In an inaugural speech that served to set an agenda for the next four years, the president said that failure to respond to the threat of climate change &#8220;would betray our children and future generations.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The issue of climate change was noticeably absent during much of the presidential campaign. One debate between the president and his Republican challenger Mitt Romney marked<a href=\"http:\/\/www.scientificamerican.com\/article.cfm?id=last-presidential-debate-marks-first-time\"> the first time in 24 years<\/a> in which global warming was not mentioned even once.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><div class=\"related-content alignleft\"><h4 class=\"related-header\">Related<\/h4><div class=\"links\"><h5>Posts<\/h5><ul><li class=\"link\"><a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/2013\/01\/08\/how-climate-change-will-impact-texas\/\">How Climate Change Will Impact Texas<\/a><\/li><li class=\"link\"><a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/2012\/10\/03\/fire-drought-and-the-climate-wars-a-talk-with-michael-mann\/\">Fire, Drought and the Climate Wars: A Talk with Michael Mann<\/a><\/li><li class=\"link\"><a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/2012\/10\/30\/three-ways-climate-change-made-hurricane-sandy-worse\/\">3 Ways Climate Change Made Hurricane Sandy Worse<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/div><div class=\"topics\"><h5>Topics<\/h5><p class=\"topic\"><img class=\"alignleft\" src=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2011\/12\/109921310-60x60.jpg\" height=\"60\" width=\"60\" \/><a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/topic\/epa\/\">Everything You Need to Know About the EPA<\/a><\/p><\/div><\/div>Public attention re-focused on the issue in the aftermath of super storm Sandy, when many scientists <a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/2012\/10\/30\/three-ways-climate-change-made-hurricane-sandy-worse\/\">saw a link<\/a> between the storm and rising sea levels. <a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/2012\/10\/03\/fire-drought-and-the-climate-wars-a-talk-with-michael-mann\/\">Researchers also say<\/a> the devastating droughts that crippled agriculture from Texas to the Midwest were worsened by global warming. Likewise, wildfires like the ones that tore through Texas in 2011 may have been exacerbated by warming trends.<\/p>\n<p>The president&#8217;s words may hearten environmentalists within his base, some of whom had been disappointed by his track record on green issues. As recently as this month, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nypost.com\/p\/news\/national\/exit_of_epa_boss_protest_9t4e0tKdNgiYPVoCgt1nBP\">rumors were circulating<\/a> that Lisa Jackson, the head of the EPA, left her post in protest of Obama&#8217;s position on the Keystone XL pipeline. And just last Friday, the administration announced <a href=\"http:\/\/fuelfix.com\/blog\/2013\/01\/20\/obama-administration-delays-hydraulic-fracturing-rule\/\">it would delay<\/a> new rules to regulate hydraulic fracturing.<\/p>\n<p>You can read the section of Obama&#8217;s speech dedicated to climate issues below courtesy of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.chicagotribune.com\/news\/chi-full-text-obama-speech-20130121,0,7328569.story\">the Chicago Tribune<\/a>.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>We, the people, still believe that our obligations as Americans are not just to ourselves, but to all posterity.\u00a0 We will respond to the threat of climate change, knowing that the failure to do so would betray our children and future generations.\u00a0 Some may still deny the overwhelming judgment of science, but none can avoid the devastating impact of raging fires, and crippling drought, and more powerful storms.\u00a0 The path towards sustainable energy sources will be long and sometimes difficult.\u00a0 But America cannot resist this transition; we must lead it.\u00a0 We cannot cede to other nations the technology that will power new jobs and new industries \u2013 we must claim its promise.\u00a0 That is how we will maintain our economic vitality and our national treasure \u2013 our forests and waterways; our croplands and snowcapped peaks.\u00a0 That is how we will preserve our planet, commanded to our care by God.\u00a0 That\u2019s what will lend meaning to the creed our fathers once declared.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Citing &#8220;the devastating impact of raging fires and crippling drought and more powerful storms&#8221; President Barack Obama put tackling climate change on a list of goals for his second presidential term today. In an inaugural speech that served to set an agenda for the next four years, the president said that failure to respond to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":23368,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[58],"tags":[84,122],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23362"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23362"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23362\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23377,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23362\/revisions\/23377"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23368"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23362"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23362"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23362"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}