From the Amazon rainforest, Biden declares nobody can reverse US progress on clean energy
Joe Biden witnessed the devastation of drought up close as the first sitting American president to set foot the Amazon rainforest
MANAUS, Brazil (AP) — Speaking from the Amazon rainforest, President Joe Biden declared Sunday that there’s no going back in America’s “clean energy revolution” even as the incoming Trump administration vows to spur fossil fuel production and scale back efforts against climate change.
Biden, the first sitting U.S. president to visit the world’s largest tropical rainforest, saw up close the ravages of deforestation. The Amazon, which is about the size of Australia, stores huge amounts of the world’s carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas driving climate change. But development is rapidly depleting the long-verdant region, where rivers have been running dry.
Flanked by giant ferns in the forest, Biden said the fight against climate change has been a defining cause of his presidency — he’s pushed for cleaner air, water and energy and achieved legislation that steered unprecedented federal spending to the fight against global warming.
But he's about to hand off to Republican President-elect Donald Trump, who is highly unlikely to prioritize the Amazon or anything related to climate change, which he's cast as a “hoax."
