Speaking to the United Nations on Tuesday, President Obama said “no nation is immune” from what he described as the “one issue that will define the contours of this century more dramatically than any other.”

Watch the speech below.

While world leaders (with some notable absences) gathered in New York to address the climate crisis, hundreds of thousands of fed up activists took to the streets in a massive demonstration demanding action.

In a separate speech at the Clinton Global Initiative, the president praised such action, although in a completely different context. “When people are free to speak their minds and hold their leaders accountable, governments are more responsive and more effective,” he said, speaking about activists in Cuba, Burma and Palestine. He could easily have been describing the men and women demanding accountability in New York.

— Posted by Peter Z. Scheer

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#activism#barack obama#climate change#clinton global initiative#global warming#new york#protest#speech