President Obama described an apocalyptic image of the world, if carbon emissions are left unchecked.
“If we were to abandon our course of action, if we stop trying to build a clean-energy economy and reduce carbon pollution, if we do nothing to keep the glaciers from melting faster, and oceans from rising faster, and forests from burning faster, and storms from growing stronger, we will condemn our children to a planet beyond their capacity to repair.
“Submerged countries. Abandoned cities. Fields no longer growing. Indigenous peoples who can’t carry out traditions that stretch back millennia. Entire industries of people who can’t practice their livelihoods. Desperate refugees seeking the sanctuary of nations not their own. Political disruptions that could trigger multiple conflicts around the globe.”
President Obama arrived in Alaska Monday afternoon and spoke of a renewed commitment to dealing with the catastrophic effects of climate change.
“On this issue — of all issues — there is such a thing as being too late, and that moment is almost upon us.
NPR writes:
“The arctic is the fastest-warming region on the planet, the president noted — and added that, as the world’s biggest economy and second-biggest carbon emitter, ‘the United States recognizes our role in creating the problem, and we embrace our responsibility to help solve it.'”
President Obama’s keeping a busy schedule during his visit to Alaska. On Monday he met with political and tribal leaders to rename the state’s Mt. McKinley to the native-preferred Denali. Poldine Carlo, 94, of Fairbanks, celebrated by singing to Obama in the Dena’ina dialect of the Athabaskan people.
The decision to rename North America’s highest peak was taken badly by a few members of Ohio’s congressional delegation. President McKinley was from Ohio, and by Donald Trump, who stated he would change the name back after he was elected president.
As President Obama and representatives of other nations converge in Anchorage for the Conference on Global Leadership in the Arctic — Cooperation, Innovation, Engagement and Resilience (GLACIER) — top U.S. climate scientists are urging policymakers to address the critical problem of the thawing permafrost in the Arctic region.
Arctic permafrost is ground frozen for many thousands of years. The permafrost is now thawing because of global warming, and the results could be disastrous and irreversible.
Dr. Max Holmes, a Senior Scientist at the Woods Hole Research Center, said:
“The release of greenhouse gases resulting from thawing Arctic permafrost could have catastrophic global consequences.”
Thawing permafrost releases greenhouse gases (carbon dioxide and methane) into the atmosphere. This will accelerate climate change, and, in turn, cause even more thawing of the permafrost. This potentially unstoppable and self-reinforcing cycle could cause a “tipping point, destroying most life on the planet.”
It is an absolute necessity change, and not empty words, comes from this conference.
Featured image courtesy of Flickr
