Obama’s Visit to Arctic Not Without Controversy

President Obama began a three day trip to Alaska on Monday to call for action against the social and environmental impacts of climate change. During this trip, President Obama will speak at the State Department’s Conference on Global Leadership, where he will call for Arctic nations to make dramatic and collective actions to combat climate change. President Obama will also become the first sitting U.S. president to visit the Alaskan Arctic by meeting with local villagers in the town of Kotzebue, whose town is currently eroding into the sea as a result of climate change. The President’s visit has been criticized by many environmental groups, who find President Obama’s remarks to be hypocritical after the Interior Department’s recent approval of a Royal Dutch Shell application to begin oil and gas drilling operations in the Chukchi Sea off of the northwest Alaskan coast.

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