By Rory Carrol, from The Guardian
Barack Obama concluded his Alaska trip on Wednesday by visiting a struggling community in the Arctic circle and calling its plight a wake-up call on global warming.
The president said climate change was threatening a way of life in the remote village of Kotzebue, on the north-west coast, and pledged clean energy initiatives to help Alaska cut its use of fossil fuels.
“I’ve been trying to make the rest of the country more aware of the changing climate but you’re already living it,” he told a crowd of more than 1000 representing about a third of Kotzebue’s population. “What’s happening here is America’s wake-up call.”
Obama became the first sitting president to cross the Arctic circle and used the village’s struggles against poverty and the elements to cap a three-day trip focused almost entirely on climate change. “If there’s one thing that threatens opportunity and prosperity for all of us … it’s the threat of a changing climate,” he told the cheering crowd. “Longer, more dangerous fire seasons. Thawing permafrost that threatens homes and infrastructure. Whether we live in the Arctic circle or the Hawaiian islands, big cities or small towns, we’re one people.”
He praised Alaskans’ pioneering spirit, saying for them it was not just a slogan: “It can be harsh. That means that you depend on each other.” He had met communities who faced losing a way of life they had practised for centuries, he said. “For many of those Alaskans it’s no longer a question of if they have to relocate – but when.”
Despite progress in reducing greenhouse gases the planet was warming and the US needed to do more to lead the world to a clean energy economy, Obama said. He offered federal help to cope with coastal erosion, high energy costs and, in some cases, relocation. He also vowed to help wean the state off carbon-emitting energy.
“We’re going to deploy more new clean energy projects on native lands and that’s going to reduce dependence on fossil fuels,” he said. However, he steered clear of his controversial decision to let Shell drill for oil in the in the Chukchi Sea. Some locals welcome the economic opportunities but critics say it will undermine his climate agenda.
Climate change is happening twice as quickly in Alaska as in the continental US. In Kotzebue, which abuts the Bering Strait, melting ice has increased shipping and shipping-related jobs. However, it has also left remote villages exposed to powerful storms. Degrading permafrost has led to sinkholes. On the way to Kotzebue the president directed Air Force One to descend to yield a closer view of the hamlet of Kivalina, which residents have voted to relocate as it sinks into the sea.
“Think about it.” Obama said. “If another country threatened to wipe out an American town, we’d do everything in our power to protect it.”
Earlier he met fisherman and families in the town of Dillingham, in Bristol bay, home to one of the world’s largest sockeye salmon fisheries.
He performed with children in a traditional Yup’ik dance and amid drizzle joined women who had anchored fishing nets by the banks of the Nushagak river. As he lifted a silver salmon it relieved itself on his shoes. “Uh-oh. What happened there?” he asked. “Generally you don’t want fish spawning over your feet.”
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