8mo ago

Biden says history is "watching us now" on climate as he makes first visit by sitting U.S. president to Amazon rainforest

www.cbsnews.com

Summary

President Biden became the first sitting U.S. president to visit the Amazon rainforest, emphasizing the global urgency of combating climate change.

During his historic visit, he called protecting the environment “a fight for humanity, citing achievements such as rejoining the Paris Agreement, boosting climate financing to $11 billion annually, and advancing green energy through the Inflation Reduction Act

He announced new conservation efforts, including $50 million for the Amazon Fund, and declared Nov. 17 as International Conservation Day.

Biden urged leaders to prioritize both environmental protection and economic growth, leaving a climate-focused legacy amid concerns over President-elect Trump’s rollback plans.

111 comments

History will not judge him kindly. He oversaw a hiatus on his country's march to fascism but ultimately chose upholding the status quo over real change that would actually have stopped it
- I’m not convinced that history will care given that we are headed towards extinction.
  
  Nah, there will be a few million humans that eek out survival on the tropical Antarctic archipelago.
  
  If Earth is lucky. We’re unfortunately a very hardy species.
- What status quo are you saying he chose to uphold?
  
  What garbage policy didn't he uphold?
- I hope all those "vote blue no matter who" people are proud. It's such a relief that Biden brought a stop to Trump and turned the country around.
  
  I guess you're one of those people who think that once Trump has destroyed Western civilization, socialism will somehow magically emerge from the ashes. But that's not how these things work.
  
  Well if people had done that instead of whining about "bLueMaGa" we wouldn't be dealing with an upcoming Drump presidency.
  In all likelihood, with yet another loss, MAGA would have fallen apart and Trump would be a fading memory rn.
  But no, now there's a chance voting either won't exist or won't matter in 4 years and we'll have to hear about el orango damn near everyday. Good job.
  
  The shame is that there were not more people who voted that way.
  America has one party, the democrats, and cancer, the republicans. It just metastasized. One party rule sucks but it sucks less than cancer.
Oh NOW history is watching! Hasn’t been watching for the last 4 years at all it seems but I guess history took a little break.
They're watching us do nothing when the planet burns. Wonder what they think of us, probably something like this
Yup, history is watching us completely drop the ball here. History is watching Joe Biden fail to rise to the occasion of addressing the onslaught of US fascism. The environment, peace, wealth, and our very freedoms are now in dire peril.
- How did he fail to rise to the occasion?
  
  Oh you naive summer child.
  
  By eating ice cream cones while promoting a genocide. That's just one example though.
  
  This is a fair question. The people voted for fascism. What’s he supposed to do, stage a coup to try and overturn the election results?
  He wanted to, and thought he could rise to the occasion but old age got to him.
This was so important to me that I decided to only do it a month before I'm leaving.
- It is so important to me that I help dropping bomb in two month that "... was equivalent to burning at least 150,000 tonnes of coal. The emissions from the first two months of the Gaza war exceeded the annual carbon footprint of over 20 climate-vulnerable nations."
It was watching you for the last 4 years, Joe.
- He did a lot. The IRA law got a ton of green investments and enterprises going, including attracting businesses from across the globe. But that's all gone now with Trump.
  
  You don't have to carry water for him anymore. He's not running.
  Biden bragged about record oil production. Bragged.
  
  Yet another handout to car dependency grifters. Nothing green about that.
  
  Yup.
  Americans are too lazy and dumb to pay attention. The majority thought Biden sucked and didn't accomplish anything. Couldn't be further from the truth.
  We're a society of irresponsible voters and the decline we're about to experience is no one's fault but our own.
Not for nothing, but waiting until the waning days and weeks of your presidency to take a trip to the Amazon and say this feels a little ... lackluster.
And exactly the kind of thing people are grilling the Democrats for after the election. Biden should have been saying this in his first year, not the 11th hour.
- Exactly. Maybe someone could have mentioned this during election season if it was so important?
Wasn't this the administration bragging about approving a record number of fracking permits?
- Because we are at war with Russia and Iran and they won't sell us oil and we still need oil for society to function
  
  The US is a net exporter of oil and the country that we import most of our oil from is Canada: https://www.eia.gov/tools/faqs/faq.php?id=727&t=6
  Iran has been a constant for decades, so that isn't a factor. While Russia has been sanctioned, their oil is still being bought up at a steep discount by India and China, so those countries' demand for oil from other sources are reduced and the impact to the oil markets are likely insignificant overall.
Is history watching how we handle Gaza and Israel too?
- History is gonna binge watch it later.
  
  I'm waiting for the 2nd half of the season to drop
  
  History is waiting for the discounted used DVD release
- Trump is already handling it, by planning to erase it completely, god bless maga
  
  Interestingly I can no longer see my own comment that you replied to when I click the link for it, though I can see it when I open a private window to it. That's pretty weird. I checked the modlog and nothing....
- It’s watching how china handles Muslims too. Pretty poorly.
  
  Wow this is the most inane whataboutism. I don't think China is massively murdering muslims and blowing up their homes like the zios. But both are bad.
Lets see him be the first fracking-suporting president to drink the water in an area where fracking has permanently destroyed the groundwater with forever chemicals.
Who cares if he visits a rainforest. Thats utterly meaningless.
History is watching you fly a military escort to the amazon and back for a photo op you dip
- History is watching an absolutely tone-deaf Democratic party doing their best PR work.
  Read the room for once, Dems. This is not what we need right now.
  
  I dont know what you are even trying to say
Lol.
We just voted against addressing climate change and, in fact, for making it worse.
Humans are going to destroy this planet. That is indisputable. The only question is if we'll have the means to leave for another one before it's too late.
- To go where? If we can fix another planet, we can fix our own. If we can reach another planet, probably we could fix our planet. But we cant, because of money.
  
  If we can fix another planet, we can fix our own.
  Who said we're fixing another planet? If we're lucky, we'll be able to move to another one and destroy that one, then move on from there.
  probably we could fix our planet. But we cant, because of money.
  It's not just money. We are inherently destructive. Our "big" brains make it so we can never be 100% compatible with our natural world the way animals are. We will ALWAYS produce waste. Right now the amount of waste we produce is obscene and entirely unstustainable. The best you can hope for is a future where education and technology allow us to produce far less waste. But we will always produce waste. We will never achieve 100% recycling capabilities. We will absolutely either destroy this planet via pollution or by using up all its available resources. We've made countless species go extinct and are continuing to do so. We are a virus on the face of the universe.
  Our destiny is to either migrate (spread) to other planets or go extinct. That is the curse of sentience.
Fuck you too, Joe.
Yes, Joe!
Do more shit for the next admin to immediately dismantle. At least to keep them busy for a few weeks.
- At least to keep them busy for a few weeks.
  itll take minutes to undo.
Will miss you Biden. I saw the policies youve tried and how hard you were filibusted on climate policies.
Oh so that's the context. I saw some Alt-Righters joking about how Biden "vanished in the rain forest never to be seen again"
meaningless
There won’t be anyone left to read the history.
holy shit I hate these soulless motherfuckers so goddamned much

111 comments