2010 年 4月14 日，奧巴馬通過電視鏡頭向全世界明確宣布：
如果10多億中國人口也過上與美國和澳大利亞同樣的生活，那將是人類的悲劇和災難，地球根本承受不了，全世界將陷入非常悲慘的境地。美國並不想限製中國的發展，但中國在發展的時候要承擔起國際上的責任。中國人要富裕起來可以，但中國領導人應該想出一個新模式，不要讓地球無法承擔。
視頻：
http://www.tudou.com/programs/view/Wg5pN8GJPhA/
參考英文：
O’BRIEN:
DO YOU FEEL THAT YOU ARE MAKING HEADWAY WITH PRESIDENT HU ON THIS FRONT?
PRESIDENT OBAMA:
Well you know I think China has an enormous interest in solving this problem. You know if you talk to Chinese leaders I think they will acknowledge immediately that if over a billion Chinese citizens have the same living patterns as Australians and Americans do right now then all of us are in for a very miserable time, the planet just can’t sustain it, so they understand that they’ve got to make a decision about a new model that is more sustainable that allows them to pursue the economic growth that they’re pursuing while at the same time dealing with these environmental consequences. So I think they understand intellectually. Right now though they’re understandable impulse is to say well let’s let the developed countries, the Australias, and the Americas deal with this problem first and we’ll get to it when we’ve caught up a little bit in terms of our standard of living. The point we’ve tried to make is we can’t, we can’t allow China to wait. We have to take responsibility and do what needs to be done, but if emerging countries not just China but also India, Brazil and others are pursuing a path in which they replace us as the largest carbon emitters, that’s not a sustainable practical approach, so we’re going to have to have everybody moving on the same track at the same time.
