People gather outside the Dena’ina Civic and Convention Center in Anchorage, Alaska, Monday, August 31, 2015, before Obama spoke at an Arctic climate conference in Anchorage, Alaska.
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He again angered Republicans on the eve of his trip to Alaska, announcing a decision to rename Mount McKinley, the tallest mountain in North America, with local name Denali.
Obama’s bigger challenge over the next three days will be to rally support for his climate change agenda. The market that drove the great wealth creation in the United States of the 1990s was a $1 trillion market with one billion users: technology, computers, personal computers, et cetera.
Rep. Bob Gibbs, R-Ohio, said he would work with the House Committee on Natural Resources “to determine what can be done to prevent this action”.
Like Denali, mountains in the Pacific Northwest had names before white settlers re-named them.
“The mountain was originally named after President William McKinley of Ohio, but President McKinley never visited, nor did he have any significant historical connection to, the mountain or to Alaska”, the order from Jewell said.
Obama said the issue of global warming is one that affects everyone on Earth – particularly those in northern and Arctic areas, such as Alaska. However, reducing the use of oil is a hard sell in a state that’s so dependent on drilling and transporting it.
In a forceful address, Obama opened the “GLACIER” conference in Anchorage, Alaska, by declaring: “We are not moving fast enough”.
Sen. Lisa Murkowski, who had pushed legislation for years to change the name, said Alaskans were “honored” to recognize the mountain as Denali – a change in tone for the Alaska Republican, who had spoken out against Obama’s energy policies in anticipation of his visit to her state.
Campaigner Sweetwater Nannauck told Sky News: “I don’t see how we can be a champion for ending this without putting a stop to this drilling, not just here but other sources too”. But the economy, he said, still relies on oil and gas while it transitions to cleaner renewable fuels. The summit will come six years after a conference in Copenhagen, Denmark, marked the first time the worldwide community acknowledged the urgency of reducing emissions. These are the words of John Kerry, U.S. Secretary of State, talking about the potential for climate refugees.
Last month Mr Obama revealed plans to reduce US greenhouse gas emissions over the next 15 years by close to a third.
Obama will also go on a boat tour Tuesday of Kenai Fjords National Park and to hike to Exit Glacier, a sprawling expanse of ice that is retreating, in what environmentalists say is a dramatic sign of warming temperatures.
The footage will be used for an upcoming episode of “Running Wild With Bear Grylls“.
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The Arctic is already feeling the effects of climate change, Obama said, noting Alaska had “some of the swiftest shoreline erosion rates in the world”, which threaten coastal villages.
