Obama treads fine line in historic trip to Alaska
ANCHORAGE, ALASKA — Barack Obama arrived in Alaska on Monday, where he is set to become the first sitting U.S. president to visit the Arctic Circle as part of an effort to thrust climate change to the forefront of the global agenda.
During his three-day tour of Alaska, Obama planned to hike a glacier, converse with fishermen and tape a reality TV show with survivalist Bear Grylls — all part of a highly orchestrated White House campaign to illustrate how climate change has damaged the state’s stunning landscape. The goal at each stop is to create powerful visuals that show real-world effects of climate change and drive home Obama’s message that the crisis already has arrived.
After arriving mid-afternoon in Anchorage, Obama planned to meet with natives before addressing a U.S.-sponsored summit on climate change and the Arctic. Later in the trip, Obama will travel north of the Arctic Circle when he visits Kotzebue — population 3,153 — to address the plight of Alaska Natives, who face dire economic conditions amid some of the worst effects of global warming.
Aboard Air Force One, the White House unveiled a new National Park Service map bearing the name Denali where Mount McKinley used to be. As a prelude to the trip, Obama announced his administration was renaming the tallest mountain in North America and restoring its traditional Athabascan name, a move that drew applause from Alaska’s leaders.
As he traverses Alaska this week, Obama has two audiences in mind: Alaskans, who are hungry for more energy development to boost the state’s sagging oil revenues, and the broader public, whose focus Obama hopes to concentrate on the need for drastic action to combat global warming, including a climate treaty that Obama hopes will help solidify his environmental legacy.
Whether Obama can successfully navigate those two competing interests — energy and the environment — is the prevailing question of his trip.