[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 36, Number 24 (Monday, June 19, 2000)]
[Pages 1347-1350]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
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,

[[Page 1348]]

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 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

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we live on Earth or what our understanding of our system is?
    Thank you.
    You go first. [Laughter]

[Dr. McNutt responded that within the next decade, hopefully, we would 
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.

[Dr. Tyson responded that possibly within the next decade, evidence 
found on Mars or Europa would help us realize that we are not alone in 
the universe. 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

[[Page 1350]]

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.
    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 made available 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.