On Friday, former President Barack Obama shared a message on Twitter pointing to hope for the future of the planet amidst widespread concern over the mounting crisis of climate change. As he noted, hope and work can “make a difference” — and of course, with the infamously climate-denying Trump administration out of power, there’s a greater opportunity for the White House to be involved in these efforts. The Biden administration has already rejoined the Paris climate accord, ordered a pause to new oil and gas drilling leases on federal lands, cancelled the planned Keystone XL oil pipeline, and more.
Meanwhile, alongside an article on the subject from The Atlantic, Obama poignantly commented on Twitter as follows:
‘Climate change is a real threat to us all—but feeling helpless or overwhelmed isn’t going to solve it. As long as we stay hopeful and keep working with the urgency the challenge demands, we can make a difference.’
Climate change is a real threat to us all—but feeling helpless or overwhelmed isn’t going to solve it. As long as we stay hopeful and keep working with the urgency the challenge demands, we can make a difference. https://t.co/AK1fYVdmzy
— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) February 5, 2021
Similarly, at the White House recently, President Joe Biden laid out his vision for action on climate change. He commented, in part, as follows:
‘It’s about coming to the moment to deal with this maximum threat that is now facing us, climate change, with a greater sense of urgency. In my view, we’ve already waited too long to deal with this climate crisis and we can’t wait any longer. We see it with our own eyes, we feel it, we know it in our bones.’
In sharp contrast, when in office, then-President Trump once said that he simply did not “believe” a report from within his own administration about the looming ramifications of climate change for the United States. Overall, the Trump administration often prioritized economic interests over those of environmental protection. For instance, they moved to ease restrictions on coal-fired power plants, although a federal appeals court overturned these changes on the final full day of Trump’s administration.
Check out Twitter’s response to Obama below:
