In an announcement postponed by the Los Angeles wildfires, President Joe Biden on Tuesday designated two sites in California as national monuments that will honour Native American tribes while shielding picturesque mountains and deserts from mining and energy development. Biden made the designations at an event at the White House, a week after -- and on the other side of the country from -- how he'd originally planned to do so, with a speech in California's Eastern Coachella Valley. The president landed in California on January 6 but made it as far as Los Angeles before high winds -- that helped spark the Los Angeles blazes -- forced officials to scrap the event. It was a stark reminder that, even as Biden uses the last days of his administration to attempt to safeguard the environment, climate change is already helping to exacerbate natural disasters. Instead, Biden spoke next to screens featuring towering peaks, desert vistas and an array of plant and animal life. "I was hoping w