Barack Obama turns tables in David Attenborough climate change interview
US
president has opportunity to put questions to naturalist but ends up
admitting action on climate change must be global and quicker
Reuters
Monday 29 June 2015
02.53 BST /
Barack Obama was the
one asking the questions in an interview with British naturalist
David Attenborough that aired on Sunday in which they agreed that
combating climate change would require a global effort.
Saying he had long
been a “huge admirer” of Attenborough’s TV documentaries about
the environment, Obama turned the tables on Attenborough in an
interview taped on 8 May at the White House, which aired on the BBC
and other international broadcasters.
David Attenborough
and Barack Obama face-to-face in TV interview
Read more
Climate change is
one of Obama’s priorities for his remaining time in office, but he
faces resistance from Republicans in Congress on how to deal with the
issue.
Obama noted the US
agreement with China in 2014 to set new limits on carbon emissions
starting in 2025. The two countries are the world’s leading carbon
emitters.
He told
Attenborough: “We’re not moving as fast as we need to, and part
of what I know from watching your programs, and all the great work
you’ve done, is that these ecosystems are all interconnected.
“If just one
country is doing the right thing, but other countries are not, then
we’re not going to solve the problem. We’re going to have to have
a global solution to this,” he said.
Attenborough agreed
that “the solutions are global”.
Obama also asked the
naturalist if he thought it was possible “to get a handle on these
issues”.
After Attenborough
stressed the value of finding ways to generate and store power from
renewable resources, Obama said: “I think you’re right about
that. There has got to be an economic component to this.”
Attenborough, 89,
the brother of the late actor and director Richard Attenborough, has
been making television documentaries for 60 years. The BBC has called
him “the godfather of natural history TV”.
It came as his
administration is finalising rules to curb carbon emissions from
power plants. Obama has pushed world leaders to agree to new targets
at a summit later this year in Paris.
Obama told
Attenborough that children were “much more environmentally aware”
than adults, and cited his daughters Malia, 16, and Sasha, 13, as
examples. “They do not dispute, for example, the science around
climate change,” Obama said.
Sem comentários:
Enviar um comentário