Live
- Chandrababu's brother Rammurthy Naidu Passes Away in Hyderabad
- South African President orders immediate closure of tuck shops linked to food poisoning cases
- Study explains mechanisms behind food poisoning, gut infections
- Telangana residential school student commits suicide
- Cases of 'walking pneumonia' rise in US capital, joining national trend
- UN warns armed violence deepens humanitarian crisis in Sudan
- Maha Vikas Aghadi will win over 160 seats, form government in Maharashtra, says Shivakumar
- 6 Factors to Consider While Choosing the Right IVF Clinic in Hyderabad
- PM Modi emplanes for three-nation visit to Nigeria, Brazil, Guyana
- Chandrababu stresses on deregulation in telecom sector at Hindustan Times conference
Barack Obama becomes first American president to enter the Arctic
Highlights
President Barack Obama crossed the Arctic Circle on Wednesday in a first by a sitting US president, telling residents in a far-flung Alaska village that their plight should be the world’s wake-up call on global warming.
President Barack Obama crossed the Arctic Circle on Wednesday in a first by a sitting US president, telling residents in a far-flung Alaska village that their plight should be the world’s wake-up call on global warming.
.jpg)
Obama’s visit to Kotzebue, a town of some 3,000 people in the Alaska Arctic, was designed to snap the country to attention by illustrating the ways warmer temperatures have already threatened entire communities and ways of life in Alaska. He said despite progress in reducing greenhouse gases, the planet is already warming and the US isn’t doing enough to stop it.
“I’ve been trying to make the rest of the country more aware of the changing climate, but you’re already living it,” Obama told a crowd of more than 1,000 in this rough-and-tumble town on Alaska’s western coast.
As he closed out a three-day tour of the state focused almost entirely on climate change, the president sought to show solidarity with Alaska Natives and rural Alaskans whose immense challenges are rarely in the national spotlight. His brief visit had the feeling of a campaign rally, with throngs of people cheering and applauding when he invoked the historic nature of the first presidential visit to the Arctic.
From the moment Air Force One touched down in Kotzebue, examples of dire poverty and climate-related obstacles were easy to spot. Obama’s motorcade snaked through the town passing rows of rusting shipping containers and dilapidated huts, almost all on stilts to accommodate gusts of wind and other weather-related events.
It was a topic Obama brought up, by way of praising Alaskans for their perseverance despite poverty, isolation and a lack of support. He said while many speak of America’s pioneering, independent spirit, in Alaska it’s not just a slogan but a way of life.
“It can be harsh,” Obama said. “That means that you depend on each other.”
Next Story
ADVERTISEMENT
