Barack Obama joins Facebook, issuing call to tackle climate change and 'preserve this beautiful planet'

Personal page describes Obama as 'Dad, husband, and 44th President of the United States'

(Getty Images)

President Obama has joined Facebook and used his first post to issue a plea to “preserve this beautiful planet of ours for our kids and grandkids.”

The US president joined the estimated billion people currently using Facebook on Monday.

Obama’s first post on his personal profile, where he describes himself as a “Dad, husband, and 44th President of the United States,” shows a video of the US leader walking around the White House gardens.

Hello, Facebook! I finally got my very own page. I hope you’ll think of this as a place where we can have real conversations about the most important issues facing our country – a place where you can hear directly from me, and share your own thoughts and stories. (You can expect some just-for-fun stuff, too.)I’m kicking it off by inviting you to take a walk with me in my backyard – something I try to do at the end of the day before I head in for dinner. I say this often, but that’s because it’s always at the front of my mind: We’ve got to preserve this beautiful planet of ours for our kids and grandkids. And that means taking serious steps to address climate change once and for all. Now, we've made a lot of progress to cut carbon pollution here at home, and we're leading the world to take action as well. But we’ve got to do more. In a few weeks, I’m heading to Paris to meet with world leaders about a global agreement to meet this challenge.I hope you'll join me in speaking out on climate change and educating your friends about why this issue is so important. At a time when nearly three in four adults online use Facebook, this feels like a great place to do it. Share your thoughts in the comments, and pass this message on to folks you think need to see it.If we're all in this together, I'm confident we can solve this and do right by future generations.

Posted by President Obama on Monday, November 9, 2015

“I’m kicking it off by inviting you to take a walk with me in my backyard – something I try to do at the end of the day before I head in for dinner,” the post reads.

Exhorting ordinary citizens and world leaders to “do more” to tackle climate change, the president says his profile will be a place for “real conversations about the most important issues” facing the US, as well as “a place where you can hear directly from me”.

But Obama also says he’ll be posting some “just-for-fun stuff, too.”

His timeline shows his birth on 4 August 1961, his marriage to Michelle in 1992 in Chicago and the bare bones of his political career from being sworn in as senator of Illinois, to his first and second inaugurations as president of the United States.