President Biden toured the Amazon on Sunday, the first sitting American president to set foot in the legendary rainforest.
The visit came as the incoming Trump administration seems poised to scale back the U.S. commitment to combating climate change.
The massive Amazon region, which is about the size of Australia, stores huge amounts of the world’s carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas that drives climate change when it’s released into the atmosphere. But development is rapidly depleting the world’s largest tropical rainforest, and rivers are drying up.
Flying over a stretch of the Amazon in a helicopter, Biden saw severe erosion, ships grounded in the Negro River tributary, and fire damage. He also passed over a wildlife refuge and the expansive waters where the Negro River joins the Amazon. He was joined by Carlos Nobre, a Nobel Prize-winning scientist and expert on how climate change is harming the Amazon.
Biden met indigenous leaders — introducing his daughter and granddaughter to them — and visited a museum at the gateway to the Amazon as he looks to highlight his commitment to the preservation of the region. Three indigenous women shook maracas as part of a welcoming ceremony.
“I’m proud to become the first sitting president to visit the Amazon,” Biden said before he signing a U.S. proclamation designating Nov. 17 as International Conservation Day.
His administration announced plans last year for a $500 million contribution to the Amazon Fund, the most significant international cooperation effort to preserve the rainforest, primarily financed by Norway.
So far, the U.S. government said it has provided $50 million, and the White House announced Sunday an additional $50 million contribution to the fund.
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