In President Obama’s remarks to assembled leaders from the Pacific Island Conference of Leaders and the International Union for
the Conservation of Nature World Conservation Congress, what is his purpose in delivering this message? How does he use rhetoric to support and advance his purpose? Use evidence from the text to support your response. Your response should be at least two complete paragraphs.
excerpt from Remarks by the President of the United States
September 1, 2016
Honolulu, Hawaii
And in my address there I talked about climate change and conservation, and how those two things are inextricably linked. Few people understand, I think, the stakes better than our Pacific Island leaders, because they’re seeing already the impact. Rising temperatures and sea levels pose an existential threat to your countries. And while some members of the U.S. Congress still seem to be debating whether climate change is real or not, many of you are already planning for new places for your people to live. Crops are withering in the Marshall Islands. Kiribati bought land in another country because theirs may someday be submerged. High seas forced villagers from their homes in Fiji.
And no nation, not even one as powerful as the United States, is immune from a changing climate. I saw it myself last year in our northernmost state of Alaska, where the sea is already swallowing villages and eating away at shorelines; where the permafrost thaws and the tundra is burning; where glaciers are melting at a pace unprecedented in modern times. And it was a preview of our future if the climate keeps changing faster than our efforts to address it.
And that’s why I’ve devoted so much of my time and my energy to making sure that we get this right while we still have time. I spoke about this at length in a speech earlier today, but over the past seven and a half years, America has worked to generate more clean energy, use less dirty energy, and waste less energy overall. And it’s made a difference. Our investments have tripled wind power, multiplied solar power thirtyfold, and, in many places, helped clean energy become cheaper than dirty energy. And we did all of this while fueling the longest uninterrupted streak of job growth on record.
So there’s no conflict between a healthy economy and a healthy planet. And that’s why I’ve committed, along with Canada and Mexico, to get 50 percent of U.S. electricity from clean sources by 2025. And with many of our biggest businesses switching to clean energy, I’m absolutely confident that we can meet that goal.
But that’s not all. I’ve also made sure we’re better prepared for the impacts of climate change, because even as we need to hit the brakes so that we don’t go over the cliff, we’re not going to come to an immediate stop. We know that there is still going to be an inevitable impact as a consequence of rising temperatures. And that means conservation has been a cornerstone of my presidency.
