President Obama will visit Alaska later this month.
He will be the first president to visit rural, Bush Alaska.
And he'll be talking climate change.
The White House website about the trip is found here.
In Alaska, glaciers are melting. The hunting and fishing upon which generations have depended -- for their way of life, and for their jobs -- are threatened. Storm surges once held at bay now endanger entire villages. As Alaskan permafrost melts, some homes are even sinking into the ground. The state’s God-given natural treasures are at risk.
According to the
ADN:
The White House has not yet confirmed the exact details of Obama’s trip to Alaska, but he does plan to travel outside of Anchorage, likely to places experiencing coastal impacts of climate change.
“Because what’s happening in Alaska isn’t just a preview of what will happen to the rest of us if we don’t take action. It’s our wake-up call. The alarm bells are ringing. And as long as I’m President, America will lead the world to meet this threat -- before it’s too late,” Obama said in the video released Thursday.
Yes, yes!
Obama needs to go to the North Slope and Arctic regions of the northwest part of the state, to Shishmaref, to Kivalina, to Barrow.
According to the EPA:
Along Alaska's northwestern coast, increased coastal erosion is causing some shorelines to retreat at rates averaging tens of feet per year. Here, melting sea ice has reduced natural coastal protection. In Shishmaref, Kivalina, and other Alaska Native Villages, erosion has caused homes to collapse into the sea. Severe erosion has forced some Alaska Native Villages' populations to relocate in order to protect lives and property.]
While in Alaska, seeing first-hand the direct impacts of a warming climate, and showing that impact to climate-change deniers, I hope that Obama will use that opportunity not only to speak in favor of alternative energy sources, but to finally give disapproval and reject, once and for all, the Keystone XL pipeline.
We need to be weaning ourselves away from increased oil usage, so what better location to take such a stand than in an Eskimo village that will eventually be forced to relocate because increasing global temperatures is causing the sea levels to rise?