Environment | Obama to open conservation tour in Lake Tahoe and Hawaii

The clarity of Lake Tahoe

President Barack Obama is opening a two-day environmental tour aimed at showcasing conservation efforts before traveling to Asia, where climate change is high on the agenda for his final trip to the region.
In Nevada yesterday, Obama plans to visit Lake Tahoe and speak at a summit dedicated to the iconic lake’s preservation. Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, who like Obama is in his final year in office, has hosted the summit for 20 years and asked Obama to attend. The president planned to hail federal and local collaboration on environmental protection while announcing modest new steps on clean energy and climate resilience.
After his brief stop in the desert, the president will head to lusher terrain in Honolulu, where he plans a speech to a gathering of leaders of island nations in the Pacific Ocean. The setting provides Obama a chance to emphasize a theme he’s returned to frequently in his climate campaign: that remote areas like small islands are the most vulnerable to rising sea levels and should help lead the fight to slow global warming.
To that end, Obama today planned an unusual presidential visit to Midway Atoll, a speck of land halfway between Asia and North America. Part of the U.S. Minor Outlying Islands, Midway played a key role for the U.S. military in World War II and was the site of a pivotal battle with Japan. Midway sits inside the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument, which President George W. Bush created and Obama expanded ahead of his trip to make it the world’s largest protected stretch of ocean.
During an afternoon on the island, managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Obama planned to get briefed on the environmental characteristics on the island. The White House said he also would “interact directly with the wildlife.” More than 7,000 species can be found there, including many that exist only in that region.
Obama’s conservation tour comes at the start of a busy trip to Asia, Obama’s final as president and one of his last opportunities to lock in his administration’s seven-year effort to expand U.S. engagement with Asia, including trade ties and cooperation on climate.
In China to attend the Group of 20 major economies summit, Obama planned to hold a formal meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping, who has become Obama’s unlikely partner in pushing for global action on climate. AP