MIDWAY ATOLL, Northwestern Hawaiian Islands—President Barack Obama plunked down on a speck of coral reef in the middle of the Pacific Ocean on Thursday and gazed out at the turquoise waters of the marine monument he’s widened to become the largest in the world.
Hundreds of rare birds fluttered in the skies halfway between Asia and North America as the president paid an unusual visit to Midway Atoll, one of the most remote areas of the ocean. Driving on a golf cart past dilapidated buildings left over from World War II, Obama said protecting the atoll and its surroundings was critical to ensuring that delicate ecosystems survive the throes of global warming.
“I look forward to knowing that 20 years from now, 40 years from now, 100 years from now, this is a place where people can still come to and see what a place like this looks like when it’s not overcrowded and destroyed by human populations,” Obama said, his shirt partially unbuttoned in the punishing island sun.
Few Americans have ever visited Midway, with its black-footed albatrosses and spinner dolphins—and that’s exactly Obama’s point. His visit to the atoll—home to fewer than 50 people—was carefully orchestrated to showcase natural beauty mostly untouched by humans, part of the president’s bid to instill his calls for conservation with a sense of real-life urgency.
