The President is touring through Alaska this week, meeting with residents of the state and seeing the effects of climate change on the ground. He's sharing what he sees along the way. Read his entry from yesterday below, and http://click.mail.whitehouse.gov/?qs=028fda8202ce7094c427fd9ea5119df11f75823cf9fe4247456eb0d02013de1f59754b2a3cc845af follow along with the trip here . Hi, everyone — checking in on day two. Right off the bat, I’ll note that I’ve got to come back here once I’m done being President. You just can’t see Alaska in three days. I spent the day hiking through Exit Glacier in the Kenai Fjords National Park — where the mountains collide with the ocean and fields of ice. When the team handed over the camera, I did my best to do this place justice: http://click.mail.whitehouse.gov/?qs=028fda8202ce7094dba763498b2be6490bf8dbed0dca8f62b6cc71d541cc6887f66119eaa7a07e38 Visitors from around the world come here to see its Harding Icefield — one of the largest ice fields in the United States — covering hundreds of square miles. As the climate warms, glaciers are shrinking more and more rapidly — and throughout the park, there are signs marking where the glacier line used to be. This is as good of a signpost as any when it comes to the impacts of climate change. http://click.mail.whitehouse.gov/?qs=028fda8202ce709451bcc8d254299d3e93eb626a959f56ee02f4378aa191edebf501df1ed986c2bc I also had the chance to tour the area by boat and experience the beauty and wildlife of Resurrection Bay. It was spectacular to see the horizon of ice and snow, but it’s melting. And if we don’t act, this simply won’t be here for future generations to enjoy. http://click.mail.whitehouse.gov/?qs=15971760625c87704ae272ddffd2cfc881a8aa5221fb39fd724d10e7e798e8dd7d0eb992465be711 Glaciers in Alaska, and the greater Arctic, are shrinking and it’s changing the way Alaskans live. And considering the Arctic’s unique role in influencing the global climate, it will accelerate changes to the way that we all live. Since 1979, the summer sea ice in the Arctic has decreased by more than 40%, a decrease that has dramatically accelerated over the past two decades. One new study estimates that Alaska’s glaciers alone lose about 75 gigatons — that’s 75 billion tons — of ice each year. What does a gigaton look like? To put that in perspective, one scientist described a gigaton of ice as a block the size of the National Mall in Washington — from Congress all the way to the Lincoln Memorial, four times as tall as the Washington Monument. Now imagine 75 of those ice blocks. That’s what Alaska’s glaciers alone lose…each year. And the pace of melting is only getting faster. It’s now twice what it was between 1950 and 2000 — twice as fast as it was just a little over a decade ago. And it’s one of the reasons why sea levels rose by about eight inches over the last century, and why they’re projected to rise another one to four feet this century. If we do nothing, temperatures in Alaska are projected to rise between six and 12 degrees by the end of the century, triggering more melting, more fires, more thawing of the permafrost, a negative feedback loop, a cycle — warming leading to more warming — that we do not want to be a part of. The fact is that climate is changing faster than our efforts to address it. That must change — and we’re not acting fast enough. http://click.mail.whitehouse.gov/?qs=15971760625c877084533bf52a8344d4f9438a5848f82577d35fc91a0bb384bd227cc5078155d67a http://click.mail.whitehouse.gov/?qs=15971760625c8770c63d705b012f524d9141cd9d62a96d0518d299551a629c69b04b464a80b5b867 more about the President’s visit and follow along at WhiteHouse.gov/Alaska</a> http://click.mail.whitehouse.gov/?qs=15971760625c87705dfb631d49863611bad84e13b31a8b68c0bf0ea98bb08caac36a816af2007108 President Barack Obama This email was sent to mailto:list-obama@xxxxxxxxxxx list-obama@xxxxxxxxxxx . http://click.mail.whitehouse.gov/?qs=028fda8202ce7094906e24b04c755b7c8bb88822b152c362ff12e20ffffe1796c93625004c5d73be Unsubscribe | http://click.mail.whitehouse.gov/?qs=15971760625c87707bcdaf5b8c5db451f6800e50efed14b6f6a9e2d8f39908dfc7a8fba3c8a5d657 Privacy Policy Please do not reply to this email. http://click.mail.whitehouse.gov/?qs=15971760625c87705315b9ad8ed3c5bd38e348c9b9efd0b7a8a41c057d80f1069249994be91a4d6c Contact the White House The White House - 1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW - Washington, DC 20500 - 202-456-1111
