viernes, 22 de febrero de 2019
viernes, 23 de septiembre de 2016
We lifted 3.5 million people out of poverty, including one million children -- the largest one-year drop in almost 50 years. Poverty went down across all racial and ethnic groups. Now, we know that inequality is still too high. We know that a lot of folks still feel like they're treading water. There's still so much more we could do to grow the economy, get wages rising faster, and slow the trend of inequality that's been on the rise for decades.
martes, 21 de abril de 2015
Here's where the President is traveling for the very first time this Wednesday:
That's the Everglades -- one of our country's most unique and treasured landscapes. But Wednesday's trip is about more than touring an iconic National Park on Earth Day. Here's why:
The Everglades are flat, and they border a rising ocean. As the sea levels rise, the shorelines erode, and that salty water travels inland, threatening the aquifers supplying fresh drinking water to Floridians. That doesn't just destroy a beautiful and unique national landscape. It threatens an $82 billion state tourism economy, and drinking water for more than 7 million Americans -- more than a third of Florida's population.
This Earth Day, we're far beyond a debate about climate change's existence. We're focused on mitigating its very real effects here at home, preparing our communities where its impacts are already being felt, and leading an international effort for action. And the President has already acted in big ways. Over the last eight years, the United States has cut more carbon pollution than any other country, while creating 12.1 million private-sector jobs over 61 months; setting aside more public lands and waters than any administration in history; and releasing a Clean Power Plan to curb carbon pollution from existing power plants -- the single-biggest source of carbon pollution in the U.S.
And the President is continuing to act. Recently, he joined the Surgeon General for a powerful conversation about the real impacts of climate change on the health of our families, and this week he will be showing how tackling climate change means protecting our local businesses and economies. Taking on this issue means preventing more asthma attacks and premature deaths, billions in revenue loss, and the potential disappearance of natural habitats for our wildlife.
So we'll be spending the week showing exactly what we're doing to tackle one of our country's greatest challenges. On Monday, the White House will issue a Presidential Proclamation highlighting the impact of national parks on our local economies. On Tuesday, we'll announce four landscapes throughout the country where we'll focus our conservation and climate resilience efforts. Later in the week, we'll announce how we're investing millions in new funding to protect those parks, as well as new actions the Department of Agriculture will take in partnership with farmers, ranchers and forest land owners to reduce net greenhouse gas emissions.
That's our part. Here's what you can do: Make this real for your friends, family, and the people who follow you on social media. Because we all have a place like the Everglades -- a place we feel personally connected to and invested in. This week, there's something we can do to change the way people think about climate change by connecting it to the spaces we love and our local communities.
Share yours here, and then share it with your friends and followers on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram using the hashtag #ActOnClimate.
For me, one of those places is Acadia National Park -- where you can enjoy islands, mountains, oceans, and beaches in one place. Acadia also attracts more than 2 million visits each year, providing a major boost to the local economy. I want to make sure my daughter can enjoy Acadia the way I've enjoyed it. I want her kids to be able to enjoy it, too. It's a place I'm willing to fight to protect. Share yours right now (and if you need to find one, you can do that here).
jueves, 2 de abril de 2015
If fully implemented, this framework will prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon, making our nation, our allies, and our world safer.
For decades, Iran has been advancing its nuclear program. When I took office, Iran was operating thousands of centrifuges -- which can produce the materials for a nuclear bomb -- and was concealing a secret nuclear facility. I made it clear that the United States was prepared to find a diplomatic resolution, if Iran came to the table in a serious way.
But that didn't happen.
So we rallied the world to impose the toughest sanctions in history, profoundly impacting Iran's economy. Sanctions couldn't stop Iran's nuclear program on their own, but they helped bring Iran to the negotiating table.
And after many months of tough and principled diplomacy, the United States -- joined by the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Russia, China, and the European Union -- achieved the framework for a deal that will cut off every pathway Iran could take to develop a nuclear weapon.
I want you to understand exactly what this deal entails:
First, it stops Iran from pursuing a bomb using plutonium, because Iran will not develop weapons-grade plutonium. The core of its reactor at Arak will be dismantled and replaced. The spent fuel from that facility will be shipped out of Iran for the life of the reactor. Iran will not build a new heavy-water reactor. And Iran will never reprocess fuel from its existing reactors.
Second, it shuts down Iran's path to a bomb using enriched uranium.Iran has agreed to reduce its installed centrifuges by two-thirds. It will no longer enrich uranium at its Fordow facility, and it will not enrich uranium with its advanced centrifuges for at least the next 10 years. And the vast majority of its stockpile of enriched uranium will be neutralized.
Third, it provides the best possible defense against Iran's ability to pursue a nuclear weapon in secret. Iran has agreed to the most robust and intrusive inspections and transparency regime ever negotiated for any nuclear program in history. International inspectors will have unprecedented access not only to Iranian nuclear facilities, but to the entire supply chain that supports Iran's nuclear program -- from uranium mills that provide the raw materials, to the centrifuge production and storage facilities that support the program.
If Iran cheats, the world will know.
In return for Iran's actions, the international community has agreed to provide Iran with relief from certain sanctions -- our own sanctions, and international sanctions imposed by the United Nations Security Council. This relief will be tied to the steps Iran takes to adhere to the deal. And if Iran violates the deal, sanctions can be snapped back into place. Meanwhile, other American sanctions on Iran -- for its support of terrorism, its human rights abuses, and its ballistic missile program -- will be fully enforced.
Now, our work is not yet done. Negotiators will continue to work through the details of how this framework will be fully implemented, and those details matter. And let me be clear: If Iran backslides, and the verification and inspection mechanisms don't meet the specifications of our nuclear and security experts, there will be no deal.
But if we can get this done, and Iran follows through on the framework that our negotiators agreed to, we will be able to peacefully resolve one of the gravest threats to the security of our nation, our allies, and the world.
Learn more about today's historic deal and how it will make the United States, our allies, and our world safer: