[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.