--- title: President Obama Takes Aim at Climate Change During UC Irvine Address description: Commander-in-chief delivers speech about dangers of climate change before around 8,000 undergraduate and graduate students canonical: https://time.com/2875807/obama-uc-irvine-climate-change/ author: Sam Frizell article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-06-14T18:16:11.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-01T08:57:31.355Z article:section: Politics og:title: President Obama Takes Aim at Climate Change During UC Irvine Address og:description: Commander-in-chief delivers speech about dangers of climate change before around 8,000 undergraduate and graduate students og:url: https://time.com/2875807/obama-uc-irvine-climate-change/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt123a31d4e7f91c9f/698697a7d0b6f24910304dac/time-a-obama-speech-140614.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 5000 og:image:height: 2813 og:image:alt: US-POLITCS-OBAMA og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: President Obama Takes Aim at Climate Change During UC Irvine Address twitter:description: Commander-in-chief delivers speech about dangers of climate change before around 8,000 undergraduate and graduate students twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt123a31d4e7f91c9f/698697a7d0b6f24910304dac/time-a-obama-speech-140614.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # President Obama Urges Action on Climate Change During UC Irvine Address > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, twice a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3/newsletters?i=f4ac337c-7162-4c94-9a08-3a87276bf294&cr=time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3-v1) ## Video: President Obama Urges Action on Climate Change During UC Irvine Address [Watch (HLS stream): President Obama Urges Action on Climate Change During UC Irvine Address](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/W2GXschz.m3u8) (1:24)  _Published 2014-06-14. Commander-in-chief delivers speech about dangers of climate change before around 8,000 undergraduate and graduate students_ by [Sam Frizell](https://time.com/author/sam-frizell/) ## Sam Frizell Jun 14, 2014 6:16 PM UTC by [Sam Frizell](https://time.com/author/sam-frizell/) ## Sam Frizell Jun 14, 2014 6:16 PM UTC President Barack Obama delivered [a commencement speech](http://ktla.com/2014/06/13/obama-to-visit-southern-california-deliver-uci-commencement-speech/#axzz34cUkybKG) on Saturday at the University of California, Irvine that focused on the overwhelming challenge of climate change, saying he wanted to “light a fire” underneath his young audience to help save a warming planet. The overwhelming majority of the scientific community has embraced the science behind the warming planet and attributed it to manmade causes, Obama said, and young people have an obligation to act. “The question is not whether we need to act. The overwhelming judgment of science, accumulated and measured and reviewed over decades, has put that to rest,” Obama said. “The question is whether we have the will to act before it’s too late.” The President also announced a $1 billion fund to help communities protect against wildfires, flooding and storm damage caused by the changing climate. “What’s the point of public office,” he said, “if you’re not going to use your power to help solve problems?” About [97 percent of climate scientists agree](http://climate.nasa.gov/scientific-consensus) that climate-warming trends are very likely due to human activities, according to NASA. But still, the president noted, a “radical fringe” exists that writes off climate change as a “liberal plot.” The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, an authoritative international body of over 1,200 international climate experts and 195 member countries, said this year that some of the overwhelming costs of climate change—including drought, food shortages, flooding, wildfires, ruinous hurricane seasons, mass migration, and wide-ranging economic damage—are already being felt. “The climate change deniers suggest there’s still a debate over the science. There’s not,” Obama said. “The talking heads on cable news suggest public opinion is hopelessly deadlocked. It’s not.” “I’m telling you all this because I want to light a fire under you,” said the President, adding that fighting global warming meant drafting scientists, factory workers and entrepreneurs who could poise the United States to take advantage of new economic forces. “As the generation getting shortchanged by this inaction, do not for a second accept that this is the way it has to be.” Last month the administration announced a plan to reduce carbon emissions by [coal-fired power plants 30 percent](http://time.com/2806697/obama-epa-coal-carbon/) by 2030. “The country that seizes this opportunity first will lead the way,” Obama said. “I want those jobs. I want those opportunities. I want those business right here in the USA.” Some 8,000 undergraduate and graduate students were set to be awarded degrees at the commencement ceremony, which marks the 50th anniversary of President Lyndon B. Johnson’s address for the dedication of the university’s land, KTLA 5 reports. The event came with high levels of security, as well as flight restrictions for private pilots. Obama also delivered the commencement address to [Worcester Technical High School](http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2014/06/11/president-obama-speaks-worcester-tech-massachusetts) in Massachusetts earlier this week. ## Transcript In some parts of the country, weather related disasters like droughts, and fires, and storms, and floods are going to get coster harsher and they're going to get costly. That's why today I'm announcing a new $ 1 billion competitive fund to help communities prepare for the impacts of climate change, and build more resilient infrastructure across the country. [ NOISE ] Cynicism is a choice, hope is a better choice. Hope is what gave young soldiers the courage to storm a beach, and liberate people they never met. Hope is what gave young students the strength to sit in and stand up, and march for women's rights and civil rights, and voting rights, and gay rights, and immigration rights. Hope is the belief against all evidence to the contrary, that there are better days ahead and that together we can build up a middle class and re- shape our immigration system and shield our children from gun violence and shelter future generations from the ravages of climate change. Hope is the fact that today, the single largest age group in America is 22- year- olds, who are all just itching to reshape this country, and reshape the world, and I cannot wait to see what you do tomorrow. Congratulations. Thank you, class of 2014, God bless you. God bless the United States of America. 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