[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: WILLIAM J. CLINTON (2000, Book I)]
[June 12, 2000]
[Pages 1129-1132]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]
Remarks at a Millennium Matinee at the White House
June 12, 2000
[The First Lady opened the program
and introduced the event's featured speakers: Marcia McNutt, president and chief executive officer, Monterey Bay
Aquarium Research Institute; and Neil de Grasse Tyson, associate astronomer and Frederick P. Rose director, Hayden Planetarium. Dr. McNutt then
discussed ocean exploration, and Dr. Tyson discussed space exploration.]
The President. Well. [Laughter] I have a hundred questions. Before
I open the floor to questions, I just would like to make a couple of
points.
First, I want to thank Dr. Tyson
and Dr. McNutt for truly fulfilling the spirit
of this wonderful old room. It was in this room, on this floor, with
maps and books on animal skins, that Thomas Jefferson and Meriwether
Lewis planned the Lewis and Clark expedition. They were exploring the
far reaches of North America, looking for an ocean no one believed at
that time you could reach by land. Today our speakers have taken us on a
very different journey of discovery. They have shown us that new
evidence is emerging from both the seas and space about so many things
but, as you have heard, among other things, about the challenge of
global climate change.
Just this morning some of our leading scientists released a draft
report that provides some of the most detailed information yet about the
potential impacts of global warming on our Nation. Some of its findings,
because it's a draft, may be revised, but essentially this report pulls
together an enormous amount of scientific analysis, and as our previous
speakers have done, it paints quite a sobering picture of the future. It
suggests that changes in climate could mean more extreme weather, more
floods, more droughts, disrupted water supplies, loss of species,
dangerously rising sea levels.
Now, I have tried for several years to get the United States to
respond to do our part. We are the largest emitter of greenhouse gases
in the world. In the next couple of decades, China and India will
surpass us, unless we all take advantage of the fundamental changes in
the nature of the economy to prove that we can have economic growth and
reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
So it is--if you'll forgive me, I want to make one earthly plea,
which is that the Congress stop blocking our commonsense efforts to
combat global warming. We need a climate change on Capitol Hill on this
issue. And it should not be a partisan issue. This is about science.
This is about evidence. This is about things that are bigger than all of
us and very much about our obligation to these children here to give
them a future on this planet. We are not yet
[[Page 1130]]
prepared to live under the sea, as we have just been told.
I'd also like to make one other announcement about ocean
exploration. In spite of all that we learn today and all that is known,
more than 95 percent of the underwater world remains unknown and unseen.
And what remains to be explored could hold clues to the origins of life
on Earth, to links to our maritime history, to cures for diseases. The
blood of the horseshoe crab, for example, provides a vital antibacterial
agent. A potential anticancer drug may come from a deep sea sponge.
Two years ago today we held the first National Oceans Conference in
Monterey, to bring experts together to chart a common agenda for the
21st century. Among the key recommendations that grew out of that
Conference was the need to establish a national ocean exploration
strategy.
One of the success stories that has come out so far occurred half a
world away on the Navy vessel, the Trieste, which you saw in the video.
In 1960 the Trieste went to an area called the Challenger Deep in the
Pacific, the deepest spot in any ocean, nearly 7 miles down. Only two
people have been there. One of those brave explorers was a young officer
named Don Walsh. President Eisenhower gave him the
Legion of Merit here in the White House more than 40 years ago. He's
here today, and I'd like to ask him to stand up. Mr. Walsh. [Applause] I
might say, he looks fit enough to make the journey again. [Laughter]
I would also like to recognize the man who discovered the wreckage
of the Titanic is here, Dr. Bob Ballard.
Can you stand up? [Applause]
I want to announce some new steps we're taking. First, three new,
first-of-their-kind expeditions off the Atlantic, Pacific, and gulf
coasts, voyages led by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration in partnership with major research institutions. These
expeditions will allow the first detailed exploration of the Hudson
Canyon off New York--it's an underwater version of the Grand Canyon,
only larger; the Middle Grounds and Big Bend areas off Florida, which
include some of the oldest life forms on Earth, giant tube worms--you
saw some on the film--up to 250 years old; and the Davidson Seamount, an
inactive ocean floor volcano off Monterey. In each expedition,
researchers will use cutting-edge deep sea diving technologies and share
their discoveries with schools and the public through the Internet.
Second, to ensure that these voyages are the start of the new era of
ocean exploration, I'm directing the Secretary of Commerce to assemble a
panel of leading ocean explorers, educators, and scientists to develop
recommendations for a national ocean exploration strategy and to report
back to me in 120 days. These steps could bring about, quite literally,
a sea change in our understanding of the oceans.
We must continue as a nation to set out for new frontiers, whether
under the sea or into the heavens. We must continue to try to conquer
the seemingly impossible, to discover the unimaginable, to find out more
about what's out there and, in the process, about ourselves and what's
here.
I would like to ask the first question, and then we'll turn it over
to the regular process and the many thousands of questions that must be
out there in this room and beyond here. I'd like to ask Dr.
McNutt and Dr. Tyson what they think the most likely discovery in the next
10 years in their field is that would have a significant impact on how
we live on Earth or what our understanding of our system is.
Thank you.
You go first. [Laughter]
[Dr. McNutt responded that the most important
discovery within the next decade, hopefully, would be to learn to
preserve the oceans, keeping them healthy and productive rather than
depleting them.]
The President. If I could just emphasize one thing. The point you
just made is related not only to pollution, to additional pollution of
the ocean and overfishing but also to climate change. When I was in
Monterey Bay, I saw small creatures right in the bay that just 20 years
ago were 20 miles south. They had made their way 20 miles in 20 years,
these minuscule creatures, because before that it was too cold in
Monterey for the creatures to exist.
This is real, and we have got--I hate to keep beating on this, but
you know what kids used to say several years ago, that denial is not
just a river in Egypt. [Laughter] We have got to come to grips with
this. And you were terrific, what you said about it in your
presentation. Thank you.
Dr. Tyson.
[[Page 1131]]
[Dr. Tyson responded that possibly
within the next decade, exploration on Mars or Europa might produce
confirmable evidence of extraterrestrial life. White House Millennium
Council Director Ellen Lovell then led the
question-and-answer portion of the program. The First Lady read an Internet question asking the President
if sending a manned mission to Mars before 2030 would be an appropriate
national priority.]
The President. Well, let me say, one of the interesting things to
me was--about the previous discussion--were the comments that were made
by both our speakers about the importance of robotic exploration of the
deep sea and outer space and about what could be done now with the
technology.
So I would leave the question of that first to the space program.
But if Dan Goldin told me that we needed to
send a man to Mars to find out what we need to know, then I would
strongly support it, because I think the United States would make a
terrible mistake to weaken either its space exploration or its undersea
exploration. I think we should accelerate it. I think we should invest
more money in it, and I think we should keep pushing the frontiers of
knowledge.
We just went through a very wrenching period where NASA had to
basically learn to do more with less. We were trying to get rid of this
terrible deficit. Now we've got a surplus. We're paying down our
national debt. We're investing in our future. And I think a big part of
that investment ought to be the broadest possible commitment to science
and technology, including vigorous, vigorous exploration of outer space
and the depths of the ocean.
That's what I believe, and I hope that that will be a commitment the
American people will extract from their candidates in this election
season and in every one for the foreseeable future, because it's very,
very important.
[Dr. Sylvia Earle, explorer in residence,
National Geographic Society, and director, Sustainable Seas Expedition,
asked about the possibilities for a 21st century focus on further ocean
exploration in contrast to the 20th century focus on space exploration.
Dr. McNutt responded that the ocean budget was
a tenth of the space budget and could not sustain much of an exploration
program at its present level.]
The President. If I could just say one word to complement that. My
Science Adviser, Dr. Neal Lane, is here. We
have tried very hard to increase the entire budget for science and
technology and especially the research budgets. And basically, what
happens is, we get in this debate with Congress. They are more than
happy to invest more money in the National Institutes of Health, and
that's good. We all want to live forever, even though we're not.
[Laughter] But there is a--one of the things that I think needs to be
addressed, and we're trying to right it a little here in this last
budget process I'll be a part of--but I've been fighting this for 3
years now. It's a terrible mistake to think that the only kind of
scientific research we need to be healthy on this planet is in
biomedical research. It's very important, but to have just that and to
neglect what we should be doing in space, what we should be doing in the
oceans, what we should be doing with nanotechnology, what we should be
doing with a whole range of other technology-related issues, all of
which in the end have to be developed if we're going to know as much as
we can about how to live as long and well as we'd like to on this
Earth--it's a huge debate. So if any of you can make any contribution to
righting that balance, I for one would be very grateful. It's a major,
major intellectual challenge that we face in the congressional debate.
Again, I say this should not be a partisan issue. This is a question
of what is the right way to do the most for our people in the new
century.
[The question-and-answer portion of the program continued. After a final
question about the possibility of discovering Earth-like planets
associated with other solar systems, Ms. Lovell
asked the President to conclude the program.]
The President. Well, I don't know what to say. [Laughter] You know,
if they're all out there, I hope they have the best of what we have and
fewer headaches. [Laughter]
Let me say, Hillary and I have enjoyed every one of these, but this
has been very, very special. I think our guests were both terrific and
all of you who asked questions. Albert Einstein once said, ``The
important thing is to not stop questioning,'' which is just what they
said. So you don't have to stop questioning, but you do have to stop
doing it right here because we're out of time.
[[Page 1132]]
And I would like to invite all of you to join us in the State Dining
Room for a reception in honor of our guests and all the students and
everyone else who is here. Let's go in there, and you can continue your
questions. Thank you very much.
Note: The White House Millennium Matinee, entitled ``Exploration:
Under the Sea, Beyond the Stars,'' the ninth in a series of Millennium
programs, began at 2:37 p.m. in the East Room at the White House. The
transcript released by the Office of the Press Secretary also included
the remarks of the First Lady, Dr. Tyson, Dr. McNutt, Ms. Lovell, and
the participants in the question-and-answer portion of the program. The
program was cybercast on the Internet.