Obama holds a Twitter Q&A on climate change

President Obama held a Twitter Q&A on his newly created, and incredibly popular, @POTUS account on Thursday, fielding questions on everything from climate change skeptics to extreme weather becoming a national security issue.

The Q&A session was Obama's first from the @POTUS account, but not the first time he has answered questions on Twitter. President Obama participated in a Twitter town hall in 2011, and Twitter Q&As in August and December of 2012 on the White House's official Twitter account.
His new @POTUS account has been a major success so far, becoming the fastest Twitter account to reach 1 million followers.

The session kicked off at 1 p.m., and the first question addressed the obvious divides in climate change perceptions in Congress: How does the president respond to climate change deniers?
The president also touched on climate change as a driving force behind some global conflicts.
Earlier in the day, Obama visited the National Hurricane Center in Miami, where meteorologists put him to work. Obama helped issue a technical forecast discussion for a new tropical storm, Andres, that just formed in the eastern Pacific Ocean.

Obama has spent his second term making climate change a legacy issue of his presidency, acting to slash U.S. emissions of greenhouse gases, boost funding for communities to adapt to stronger storms, and negotiate closely with other nations, including China, to jointly cut emissions.
The centerpiece of his domestic policies are regulations by the EPA that would cut greenhouse gas emissions from power plants. Those are currently being challenged in court. Obama echoed the stance of Pope Francis and other religious leaders that humanity has a moral obligation to preserve the earth.
But climate wasn't the only thing on the president's mind. He let his love for basketball shine through during a Twitter exchange with one young man who asked for his take on Cleveland Cavaliers player J.R. Smith.