US President Barack Obama’s visit to Kotzebue, a town of some 3,000 people in the Alaska Arctic, was designed to snap the country to attention by illustrating the ways warmer temperatures have already threatened entire communities and ways of life in Alaska. He said, despite progress in reducing greenhouse gases, the planet is already warming and the U.S. isn’t doing enough to stop it.
“I’ve been trying to
make the rest of the country more aware of a changing climate, but
you’re already living it,” US President Barack Obama told a crowd of more than 1,000 in
the town on Alaska’s western coast.
As he closed out
a three day tour of the state focused almost entirely on climate
change, the president sought to show solidarity with Alaska natives and
rural Alaskans, whose immense challenges are rarely in the national
spotlight.
His brief visit had the feeling of a campaign rally, with
throngs of people cheering and applauding, when he invoked the historic
nature of the first presidential visit to the Arctic.
US President Barack Obama came to Alaska with no grand policy pronouncements
or promises of massive federal aid. Instead, he sought to use the
changes to Alaska’s breathtaking landscape to put pressure on leaders in
the U.S. and abroad to cut greenhouse gas emissions, as he works to
secure a global climate treaty that he hopes will form a cornerstone of
his environmental legacy.
Temperatures in the Arctic
are rising twice as fast as anywhere else on earth, US President Barack Obama said.
Permafrost, the layer of frozen ice under the surface, is thawing and
causing homes, pipes and roads to sink as the soil quickly erodes.
Some
100,000 Alaskans live in areas vulnerable to melting permafrost,
government estimates show
President Barack Obama, accompanied by local fishermen, speaks to members of the media on Kanakanak Beach
Residents wave to President Barack Obama as he gets a tour of Kotzebue
US President Barack Obama reaches into the crowd to greet people
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