WASHINGTON — With melting glaciers and rising seas as his backdrop, President Barack Obama will visit Alaska this week to press for urgent global action to combat climate change, even as he carefully calibrates his message in a state heavily dependent on oil.
Obama will become the first sitting president to visit the Alaska Arctic when he travels to Kotzebue (population 3,153) just north of the Arctic Circle at the end of his three-day trip. He’ll start the visit Monday with a speech to a State Department-hosted conference on climate change and the Arctic.
The unambiguous goal of the president’s trip is to use dramatic and alarming changes to Alaska’s climate to instill fresh urgency into his global warming agenda. Sea ice is melting, critical permafrost is thawing and Alaska’s cherished glaciers are liquefying — powerful visuals that Obama hopes will illustrate the threat to natural wonders and livelihoods and serve as a global call to action.
“This is all real,” Obama said in his weekly address released Saturday. “This is happening to our fellow Americans right now.”