President Obama Monday night blamed human activity for disrupting the Earth’s climate quicker than thought, while condemning climate change deniers.
“Human activity is disrupting the climate … faster than we previously thought,” he told a group of global leaders assembled in Anchorage, Alaska, to discuss the impact of climate change on the Arctic. “The science is stark. It is sharpening. It proves that this once-distant threat is very much in the present.
“So the time to heed the critics and cynics is past,” he said. “The time to plead ignorance is surely past. The deniers are increasingly alone, on their own shrinking island.”
The Arctic represents “the leading edge of climate change … our leading indicator of what the entire planet faces,” the president added. “Arctic temperatures are rising about twice as fast [as the world],” with Alaska temperatures rising “twice as fast as [the] United States.”
The change in global warming that the president was referring to is based on the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The panel’s latest reporting shows temperatures rising by twice the global average in the past 100 years.
The president’s remarks were meant to rally support for a global deal on climate change later this year in Paris.
He emphasized that the threat of climate change was not a challenge for the U.S. to face alone, but needs to be done in cooperation with other nations. He said Monday’s meeting in Anchorage was a strong indication that all nations are taking responsibility for the effects of climate change in the Arctic.
Obama’s statements came just hours after the foreign ministers and leaders of several countries signed a joint statement in Anchorage that called climate change a “grave” challenge, while affirming their commitment to reaching a global deal on cutting greenhouse gas emissions in Paris in December. Most climate scientists blame greenhouse gas emissions, mainly from burning fossil fuels such as coal and oil, for driving manmade global warming.
“Climate change poses a grave challenge in the Arctic and to the world,” the communiqué reads. “But these challenges also present an imperative for cooperation, innovation, and engagement as we work together to safeguard this vital region and to inform the world why the Arctic matters to us all.”
The delegates at the meeting included members of the European Union, France Japan and many others.
