{"id":10900,"date":"2015-01-21T13:13:04","date_gmt":"2015-01-21T18:13:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/?p=10900"},"modified":"2015-01-21T13:13:04","modified_gmt":"2015-01-21T18:13:04","slug":"state-of-the-union-2015-obama-calls-out-climate-skeptics-urges-expansion-of-educational-opportunity-civility","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/2015\/01\/21\/state-of-the-union-2015-obama-calls-out-climate-skeptics-urges-expansion-of-educational-opportunity-civility\/","title":{"rendered":"State of the Union 2015: Obama calls out climate skeptics, urges expansion of educational opportunity, civility"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"President<\/a>

President Obama addresses a joint session of Congress to give his official report on the State of the Union (Credit\/Official White House photo by Amanda Lucidon)<\/p><\/div>\n

A common refrain from skeptics of the severity of humanity\u2019s contribution to climate change over the past year is \u201cI\u2019m not a scientist.\u201d During his 2015 State of the Union address<\/a>, President Obama responded to that sentiment head on, suggesting climate skeptics should actually get to know some scientists and suggested a few places they could go to find them, including institutions within their own communities.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, I\u2019m not a scientist, either.\u00a0 But you know what, I know a lot of really good scientists at NASA, and at NOAA, and at our major universities,\u201d said President Obama.\u00a0 \u201cAnd the best scientists in the world are all telling us that our activities are changing the climate, and if we don\u2019t act forcefully, we\u2019ll continue to see rising oceans, longer, hotter heat waves, dangerous droughts and floods, and massive disruptions that can trigger greater migration and conflict and hunger around the globe.\u201d<\/p>\n

The president used the Oct. 2014 Department of Defense report<\/a> on climate change to reaffirm the urgency of tackling the issue and the various actions<\/a> he\u2019s taken to protect public lands and waters and build international support to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Pentagon says that climate change poses immediate risks to our national security.\u00a0 We should act like it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

President Obama also called for Congress to find common ground on how to pay for federal investments that stimulate innovation and job creation, including scientific research.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow, the truth is, when it comes to issues like infrastructure and basic research, I know there\u2019s bipartisan support in this chamber.\u00a0 Members of both parties have told me so.\u00a0 Where we too often run onto the rocks is how to pay for these investments.\u201d<\/p>\n

The president suggested Congress increase federal revenue by closing tax loopholes that disproportionately benefit large corporations.<\/p>\n

The president also touched on his plan<\/a> to expand access to community college, which he stated is the route that 40 percent of college students have taken when they pursue higher education.<\/p>\n

\u201cTennessee, a state with Republican leadership, and Chicago, a city with Democratic leadership, are showing that free community college is possible.\u00a0 I want to spread that idea all across America, so that two years of college becomes as free and universal in America as high school is today,\u201d said the president.<\/p>\n

In a more somber and reflective moment, President Obama acknowledged that he hadn\u2019t lived up to his 2008 presidential campaign pledge to foster more unity and break the partisan gridlock on Capitol Hill. Even still, citing recent cases where Americans have remained optimistic in the face of adversity, he challenged lawmakers to \u201cbetter reflect America\u2019s hopes.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you share the broad vision I outlined tonight, I ask you to join me in the work at hand,\u201d said the president.\u00a0\u201cIf you disagree with parts of it, I hope you\u2019ll at least work with me where you do agree.\u00a0 And I commit to every Republican here tonight that I will not only seek out your ideas, I will seek to work with you to make this country stronger.\u201d<\/p>\n

Click here<\/a> to read the full State of the Union address.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A common refrain from skeptics of the severity of humanity\u2019s contribution to climate change over the past year is \u201cI\u2019m not a scientist.\u201d During his 2015 State of the Union address, President Obama responded to that sentiment head on, suggesting climate skeptics should actually get to know some scientists and suggested a few places they could go to find them,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":43,"featured_media":10901,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[991,60,134,141,96,179],"class_list":["post-10900","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ecology-in-policy","tag-climate-2","tag-climate-change","tag-congress","tag-defense","tag-education","tag-president-obama"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10900","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/43"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10900"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10900\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10901"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10900"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10900"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10900"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}