Monday - August 31, 2015

obama: half and half

Obama visits Alaska. First sitting president to ever go there.

Yay, Mr. President. About time. Hard to believe it ... Alaska has been a state for 55 years now. About time they got a visit. Lucky for them, this was State #55 on his list of 57 states. 

But Drew, plenty of other presidents have been to Alaska! Ah ha ha, don’t get your dogsled traces tangled. Obama is visiting Alaska NORTH of the Arctic Circle, which is way the heck up there, where just about nobody lives. It’s the northern third of the state, of which about half is wildlife refuge and parkland. Hundreds of thousands of square miles of land, and the biggest “city” of Barrow has something like 4,000 people. So it’s the Big Big Big Empty. About the biggest thing up there are the remains of the old Cold War DEW Line stations, first cousins to the original military BMEWS system. Most of these radar sites have been torn down and abandoned. White Alice doesn’t live here any more.

He’s heading up there to rub noses with teh “Esquimox”, and use the barren frozen wilderness as a massive photo op to push his Climate Change initiative. So this is all political grandstanding. And maybe he can get a prize for another meaningless “firstie” for black people. First Community Organizer voluntarily north of the Line who wasn’t in the military or something. No word on whether the Firs Fambly will go with him, but rumors of cries of “nigga you crazy??” being heard on Pennsylvania Avenue are circulating. Currently experiencing a heat wave, the recent daily high temps in Barrow at the peak of summer have hit almost 9 degrees above freezing. Break out the lemonade!!

Boo, Mr. pResident. Obama visits Alaska. Gives white people the finger (again) by renaming #2 world famous mountain Mount McKinley, as Mount Denali. The whole range of mountains is named the Alaska Range, and this one, the tallest mountain in North America, just happens to sit in the middle of a gigantic nature preserve called Denali Park. It was named in honor of former president William McKinley. Yeah, but the locals have always called it Mount Denali. Really? What locals? The nearest town of any size is this place called ... Wasilla. Wasilla? Ruh roh!!

Obama flies to Anchorage on Monday morning for a three-day tour of the nation’s largest state, closely choreographed to call attention to the ways Obama says climate change is already damaging Alaska’s stunning scenery. By showcasing thawing permafrost, melting sea ice and eroding shorelines, Obama hopes to raise the sense of urgency to deal quickly to slow climate change in the U.S. and overseas.

His excursion north of the Arctic Circle will make Obama the first sitting president to step foot in the Alaska Arctic, home to Alaska Natives who have received less attention amid Obama’s recent efforts to improve conditions for Native Americans. In a major show of solidarity, Obama announced on the eve of his trip that his administration is changing the name of North America’s tallest peak, Mount McKinley, to Denali, its traditional Athabascan name.

Obama’s move to strip the mountain of its name honoring former President William McKinley, a son of Ohio, drew loud condemnations from Ohio lawmakers, including House Speaker John Boehner, who said he was “deeply disappointed” in the decision.

“This political stunt is insulting to all Ohioans, and I will be working with the House Committee on Natural Resources to determine what can be done to prevent this action,” added Rep. Bob Gibbs, R-Ohio.

In renaming 20,320-foot Mount McKinely as Denali, Obama was instating a moniker Alaskans have informally used for centuries. The name means “the high one” in Athabascan.

Yet Obama was to navigate far more turbulent political waters when he arrived Monday afternoon in Anchorage, where his grand declarations on climate change have been met with skepticism by leaders in a state that’s heavily dependent on oil revenues that have fallen precipitously.

At the same time, environmental groups warned in the lead-up to Obama’s trip that he hadn’t done enough to protect Alaska and the climate. They took particular offense at his administration’s move just a few weeks ago to give Royal Dutch Shell a final permit for expanded drilling off Alaska’s northwest coast.

Oh, you hadn’t heard about that one? Well, remember how it was so ever lastingly vital under BOOOSH that “drill here, drill now” be brought to a screaming halt to Save Teh World? Even his glee squad at CNN is pissed at him for his latest sell out ...

The Last Frontier state is arguably the best place in the United States to see the now-now-yes-really-now effects of climate change. On the U.S. President’s itinerary: melting glaciers, struggling fishermen and the cultural dislocation of Alaska Native villages.

The Arctic is warming at about twice the rate of the rest of the globe, meaning it’s an obvious front line in the war on global warming. That Obama is highlighting the clear and present dangers of climate change is vitally important. It may help wake up the American people to a topic they’ve been slow to embrace. And it may help bolster Obama’s credibility as he heads into global negotiations this December in Paris, where world leaders will try to limit warming to 2 degrees Celsius, which is regarded as the threshold for dangerous and potentially unmanageable climate change.

That number—2 degrees Celsius—is also the reason, however, I find Obama’s trip to the Arctic to be rather ironic. Scientists have argued that the world will not to be able to meet its target of limiting warming to 2 degrees Celsius, measured as a change in temperature since the industrial revolution, if we tap oil reserves in the Arctic. Yet, that’s exactly what the administration is allowing to happen.
...
This is all a numbers game, as McGlade and Ekins show. To meet international climate targets, the world only can burn about 1,000 gigatons of carbon. We’ve already burned through more than half of that carbon budget, and could finish it off in 30 years if things don’t change fast.

Given that context, the Obama Administration’s decision to allow Shell to start drilling for oil off the coast of Alaska makes us look like junkies on the search for the next hit.

That’s clearly not smart climate policy.

Better act fast, because Alaska is heating up muy rapido!! Hmmm, I wonder if this could have the tiniest, teeniest, eensie-weensiest bit to do with any local temperature rise???

Alaska already has warmed 1.7 degrees Celsius in the last 60 years, according to the U.S. National Climate Assessment. Wildfires have burned 5 million acres acres this year alone ...

Posted by Drew458     on 08/31/2015 at 03:06 PM   
Filed Under: • Climate-Weather • Obama, The One •  
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