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BRAZIL | MANAUS MANAUS, Brazil — Joe Biden toured the drought-shrunken waters of the Amazon River's greatest tributary Sunday as the first sitting American president to set foot in the legendary rainforest, while 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. People are also reading.
.. 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.
"It's significant for a sitting president to visit the Amazon. ..
. This shows a personal commitment from the president," said Suely Araújo, former head of the Brazilian environmental protection agency and public policy coordinator with the nonprofit Climate Observatory. "That said, we can't expect concrete results from this visit.
" The incoming Trump administration is highly unlikely to prioritize the Amazon or anything related to climate change. The Republican president-elect already said he would again pull out of the Paris agreement, a global pact forged to avert the threat of catastrophic climate change, after Biden recommitted to the accord. Trump has cast climate change as a "hoax" and said he will eliminate energy efficiency regulations.
Still, the Biden White House on Sunday announced a series of new efforts aimed at bolstering the Amazon and stemming the impact of climate change. Among the actions is the launch of a finance coalition that looks to spur at least $10 billion in public and private investment for land restoration and eco-friendly economic projects by 2030, and a $37.5 million loan to an organization to support the large-scale planting of native tree species on degraded grasslands in Brazil.
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