Former President Barack Obama was golfing in Argentina with Argentine President Mauricio Macri. Obama is in the country for the Green Environment Summit.
On Saturday Obama golfed with Marci at the course owned by his brother Golf Club de Bella Vista after delivering a speech on clean energy the day before after arriving on a private plane.
Macri said Obama owed him a golf match since the former president hadn’t been in the country for a year and a half. Macri also played with Donald Trump before he was elected president.
Argentine President Mauricio Macri (L) and former US President Barack Obama meeting at the Golf Club Buenos Aires, in Bella Vista, Buenos Aires Province, Argentina Saturday
The leaders discussed the challenges of the upcoming G20 Summit in Argentina
Obama and Marci are expected to discuss ‘informally and privately’ the challenges ahead now that Argentina will hold the G20 Summit in 2018.
Obama told an audience of government ministers, business leaders and young environmental activists that we have the means to change the planet. ‘This is no longer speculation, this is no longer an issue that we can put off, this is firmly in the present.’
‘If we take advantage of this critical time, we have the chance to slow and even stop a trend that could be disastrous,’ Obama said according to Phys.org.
‘We cannot condemn our children and their children to a future they cannot repair,’ said Obama, who signed the Paris Climate Accord agreement that President Donald Trump declined to sign off on.
‘We are the first generation to feel the impact of climate change but we’re also the last generation that can do something about it.’
Despite America not partaking in the Paris accord he said, ‘the good news is that the United States will hit its targets despite a different approach by the incoming administration.
‘Because so much of what we did is now embedded in our economy and in our culture, because our states and cities, our universities, our largest companies, have made it clear that they will keep pushing forward for the sake of future generations.’
The men looked happy to reconnect and play a round as Obama hadn’t been to the country in a year and a half
Obama delivered a speech during the Green Economy Summit 2017 in Cordoba province on Friday for the Green Environment Summit
But Obama also said the Paris accord alone is not enough to solve the climate crisis and that as technology evolved, more would need to be done.
‘If we set bolder targets then we will open the floodgates for businesses, scientists, engineers to reach the high-tech low carb investment and innovation that’s needed on a scale we’ve never seen before.’
The two-day Green Economy conference in the city of Cordoba heard from experts including Nobel economic laureate Edmund Phelps focused on the global fight for clean energy resting in the hands of businesses and ordinary people because governments are lagging behind.
Obama said most of all, young people need to be working towards solutions to climate change and to find ways to harness clean energy efficiently. The need to ‘understand this is not just a job for politicians.’
‘We’ve got to educate our friends, our families, our colleagues, and describe what’s at stake. And we need to speak up in town halls, and in churches. We need to push back against those who would try to spread misinformation, and deny science.’
He also took a dig at Fox News saying ‘if you watch Fox News you probably don’t believe climate change is such a problem.’
‘If we can look beyond the daily news cycle and think about the basics, the air that our children breathe, if that is our focus and we’re willing to put that above any short term interests then it won’t be too late.’
He also pointed to Miami, and the ocean rising around the large city.
‘It’s very hard to build a dam around Miami because the water is coming up through the ground. It’s porous, that’s the reason why even on a sunny day there are parts of Miami now where you’ll see a foot of water running down the street.’