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Obama Says U.S. Can Lead Climate Change Battle
 [An Nahar] U.S. President Barack ObamaWe're gonna punish our enemies and we're gonna reward our friends who stand with us on issues that are important to us... touted his new climate change proposal in his weekly address Saturday, calling for Americans to lead the charge against the warming environment. "Those who already feel the effects of a changing climate don't have time to deny it -- they're busy dealing with it," said Obama in his pre-recorded address on radio and the Internet. "The firefighters who brave longer wildfire seasons. The farmers who see crops wilted one year, and washed away the next. Western families worried about water that's drying up. "The cost of these events can be measured in lost lives and livelihoods, lost homes and businesses, and hundreds of billions of dollars in emergency services and disaster relief. And Americans across the country are already paying the price of inaction in higher food costs, insurance premiums, and the tab for rebuilding. "The question is not whether we need to act. The question is whether we will have the courage to act before it's too late," the president said. Obama laid out a broad new plan to fight climate change on Tuesday, using executive powers to get around deniers who have blocked action in Congress. He called for new restrictions on existing and new power plants to curb carbon emissions, pledged to push new generation clean energy sources and to lead a fresh global effort to stem global warming. "This is the fight America can and will lead in the 21st century. But it will require all of us, as citizens, to do our part," the president said Saturday, calling for scientists to develop biofuels and farmers to grow them, engineers to design clean technology and businesses to get them to market. "We will be judged -- as a people, as a society, and as a country -- on where we go from here," Obama said. Posted by: Fred 2013-07-02 |
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