Yosemite visit keys on climate shift

Changes already damaging national parks, president says

President Barack Obama addresses climate change Saturday during a news conference in Yosemite National Park’s Cook’s Meadow in California.
President Barack Obama addresses climate change Saturday during a news conference in Yosemite National Park’s Cook’s Meadow in California.

YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK, Calif. -- President Barack Obama said on Saturday that climate change is already damaging America's national parks, with rising temperatures causing Yosemite's meadows to dry out and raising the prospect of a glacier preserve without its glaciers someday.

"Make no mistake. Climate change is no longer just a threat. It's already a reality," Obama said from a podium, with Yosemite Falls, one of the world's tallest at 2,425 feet, as a backdrop.

At the California park, where Obama was spending the weekend with his wife, Michelle, and daughters Malia and Sasha, the president also talked about how a rabbitlike animal known as a pika is being forced further upslope at Yosemite to escape the heat.

"Rising temperatures could mean no more glaciers at Glacier National Park. No more Joshua trees at Joshua Tree National Park," he said, adding that a changing climate could destroy vital ecosystems in the Everglades and threaten such landmarks as Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty.

The president's visit to Yosemite, after a stop at Carlsbad Caverns National Park in New Mexico on Friday, comes as the National Park Service prepares to celebrate its 100-year anniversary in August. The service, which Obama called "the envy of the world," was established by President Woodrow Wilson in 1916 as an agency within the Department of the Interior.

But the parks face a growing budget shortfall. There's a record $12 billion in deferred maintenance across the parks system, leaving leaky toilets, crumbling roads and unsafe bridges at various sites, Interior Secretary Sally Jewell told reporters on a conference call Thursday.

For the centennial, "we're asking all Americans to find your park, so that everyone, including those from underserved communities, can experience these wonders," Obama said, noting that every dollar invested in the parks generates $10 for local economies.

Diverging from his discussion of environmental issues, Obama asked parents Saturday in his weekly radio and Internet address to teach their children to love, not hate, and to appreciate differences as something to cherish, not fear.

Obama said he's thought a lot about parents who've had to explain the shooting deaths of 49 people at an Orlando, Fla., nightclub to their children.

He lamented that moments of silence observed after deadly mass shootings have given way to months of "inexcusable" silence and inaction. He called on parents who want their children to reach adulthood in a safer, more loving world to speak up for it -- and to speak out about the dangers guns present.

"They need to hear us say these things even when those who disagree are loud and are powerful," Obama said in the pre-Father's Day address. "We need our kids to hear from us why tolerance and equality matter, about the times their absence has scarred our history and how greater understanding will better the future they will inherit."

Obama said being a parent teaches that some things can't be controlled.

"But as parents, we should remember there's one responsibility that's always in our power to fulfill: our obligation to give our children unconditional love and support, to show them the difference between right and wrong, to teach them to love, not to hate, and to appreciate our differences not as something to fear, but as a great gift to cherish," Obama said.

"To me, fatherhood means being there. So in the days ahead, let's be there for each other," he added. "Let's be there for our families and for those that are hurting. Let's come together in our communities and as a country. And let's never forget how much good we can achieve simply by loving one another."

Information for this article was contributed by Darlene Superville of The Associated Press and by Toluse Olorunnipa of Bloomberg News.

A Section on 06/19/2016

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