Biden Addresses U.S. Coast Guard Academy Graduates

The world is changing. We’re at a significant inflection point in world history. And our country and the world, and the United States of America has always been able to chart the future in times of great change. We’ve been able to consistently renew ourselves, and time and again, we’ve proven there’s not a single thing we cannot do as a nation when we do it together. And I mean that, not a single, solitary thing. This is particularly important in this moment of accelerating global challenges. Hybrid threats that don’t stop at our border. We have to meet them on the land and the sea, wherever we find them. And that’s where the Coast Guard excels. Pandemic response would not necessarily been considered a Coast Guard mission until there are more than 250,000 stranded cruise passengers who needed to be safely disembarked during Covid-19. Disaster response has long been part of the Coast Guard’s mission. But with the pace of climate change accelerating, we’re seeing more frequent, more intense storms that call for you to respond. Last year was the most active hurricane season on record — 30 named storms. And the Coast Guard was always there to respond, even at the height of the pandemic. But you’ve also been a part of our response to wildfires in the West, record flooding in the heart of the country. These patterns are only going to get worse if we fail to take immediate, ambitious actions on climate.