In Alaska, Obama warns of warming
Angers Ohio by renaming McKinley
ANCHORAGE, Alaska— Submerged countries, abandoned cities and floods of refugees await the world barring urgent action on climate change, President Barack Obama warned Monday, painting a doomsday scenario as he opened a historic visit to Alaska.
In a bid to further his environmental legacy, Obama brought the power of the presidential pulpit to Anchorage and called on other nations to take swift action as negotiations for a global climate treaty near a close.
In a speech to an Arctic climate summit, Obama sought to set the tone for a three-day tour of Alaska that will put the state’s liquefying glaciers and sinking villages on graphic display.
“On this issue — of all issues —
there is such a thing as being too late,” Obama said. “And that moment is almost upon us.”
During his 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 White House campaign to illustrate how climate change has damaged Alaska’s stunning landscape.
The goal at each stop is to create powerful visuals that show realworld effects of climate change and drive home Obama’s message that the crisis is already occurring.
Evoking ominous consequences, Obama said that climate change left unchecked would soon trigger global conflict and “condemn our children to a planet beyond their capacity to repair.”
In the Arctic, which is warming faster than any other corner of the globe, Obama said melting permafrost and disintegrating sea ice risk floods, fires and unimaginable economic damage.
“It’s already changing the way Alaskans live,” Obama said.
Ahead of his trip here, Obama erased a former Republican president’s name from North America’s tallest peak in a move applauded in Alaska and derided more than 3,000 miles away in Ohio.
Showing solidarity with Alaska Natives, Obama announced Sunday that his administration would rename Mount McKinley as Denali, its traditional Athabaskan name.
Alaska’s governor and congressional delegation praised the longsought change. But stripping the mountain of its name honoring former President William McKinley, a son of Ohio, drew loud condemnations from Ohio lawmakers.
“This political stunt is insulting to all Ohioans, and I will be working with the House Committee on Natural Resources to determine what can be done to prevent this action,” added Rep. Bob Gibbs, R-Ohio.
In renaming 20,320-foot mountain, Obama was recognizing the moniker Alaskans have informally used for centuries. The name means “the high one” in Athabaskan.
Obama has two audiences in mind as he traverses Alaska this week: 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 he hopes will help solidify his environmental legacy.
Whether Obama can successfully navigate those competing interests — energy and the environment — remained the prevailing question of his trip.
Even Alaska Natives, who have echoed Obama’s warnings on climate change, have urged him to allow more oil and gas to be sucked out of Alaska’s soil and waters.
Alaska faces a roughly $3.5 billion deficit this year as a result of falling oil prices, forcing state budget cuts that have wreaked havoc on rural services.
“History has shown us that the responsible energy development which is the lifeblood of our economy can exist in tandem with, and significantly enhance, our traditional way of life,” leaders of the Arctic Slope Regional Corporation, which represents Inupiat Eskimo shareholders, wrote Monday in a letter to Obama.
Obama’s first stop after arriving in Anchorage was a listening session with Alaska Natives, who relayed concerns about crippling energy costs and uncertainty about hunting and fishing rights.
Highlighting what he described as progress for Alaska Natives on his watch, Obama said he hoped to be setting a new pattern of cooperation that would extend beyond his presidency.
His tour continues today with a boat tour of Kenai Fjords National Park and a hike to Exit Glacier, a sprawling expanse of ice that is retreating amid warming temperatures.