Interview with Megan Glaros of CBS's "This Morning"

GLAROS: The big news story of the day today and obviously President Jonathan accepting US aid to help the girls in Nigeria. So what help will we provide? And do you think at this point with three weeks in, is it too late?

THE PRESIDENT: We're sending in a team made up of our military and law enforcement and other experts, and we're very glad that Nigeria has accepted the help. Obviously what's happening is awful. And as a father of two girls, I can't imagine what the parents are going through.

But this organization, Boko Haram, has been one of the worst regional or local terrorist organizations in the world. We'd long sought to work with Nigeria on dealing with them. And we're going to do everything we can to assist them in recovering these young women.

More broadly though we're gonna have to really tackle a pernicious problem inside that county—a an organization that's carried out ruthless attacks and killed thousands of people over the last several years.

GLAROS: Mr. President, Climate, climate change in general can be such a partisan issue. There is now bipartisan support for the Keystone Pipeline. They're claiming energy efficiency. In light of all the data coming in with this new report, talking about carbon emissions, are you more onboard or are you concerned at this point?

THE PRESIDENT: Well, the climate assessment plan was done over the course of four years, talking to hundreds of experts across the country, the private sector, not-for profits. And, the assessment is clear. Not only is climate change a problem in the future. It's already affecting Americans. It's increasing the likelihood of floods. Increasing the likelihood of drought. It's increasing the likelihood of storms and hurricanes. It's having an impact on our agriculture. It's having an impact on our tourism industries. And people's lives are at risk.

So, the emphasis on the Climate Action Plan that I've put forward as well as this assessment is there are things we can do about it, but it's only going to happen if the American people and people around the world take the challenge seriously. And, we've already increased our production of solar and wind power. We've already increased fuel efficiency standards on cars, and now we're going to appliances. But we're gonna have to do more. And that should be a bipartisan issue, because always want to make sure that we're passing on an American to our kids and grandkids that is as beautiful as the one that we inherited.

GLAROS: And Sir, climate change is the kind of thing a lot of people don't put as a top priority. How do you change that?

THE PRESIDENT: Hopefully, by publicizing the fact that there are real costs, not out in the distant future, but right now. We can't attribute any single weather event to climate change. But we know that if temperatures are rising, you're going to see more extreme weather events. And that means that more people are at risk. More homes are lost. More lives are potentially lost. It's going to impact people in severe, significant ways that cost money. And so for us to make some decisions now uh as opposed to putting this off, may seem as though we are dealing with something that we don't have to deal with until later. But in fact we'll end up saving money and lives over the long term. And I think that's something that most Americans understand.