Climate change happening 'right now,' Obama says ahead of Alaska trip

WASHINGTON — President Obama sought to spotlight the effects of global warming Saturday as he prepared to travel to Alaska this coming week.

“Alaskans are already living with its effects,” he said in his weekly address.

The state — currently experiencing one of its worst wildfire seasons on record — is expected to see its average temperatures rise by 6 to 12 degrees if nothing is done to halt climate change, Obama said. Four villages there are already in imminent danger from rising sea waters as sea ice and glaciers melt.

“This is all real. This is happening to our fellow Americans right now,” he said. “Think about that. If another country threatened to wipe out an American town, we’d do everything in our power to protect ourselves. Climate change poses the same threat, right now.”

The president is striking a tricky balance between environmental conservation and energy production — he has long supported expanded oil drilling off the Alaskan coast, the very fuel that has contributed to global warming.

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Obama is facing sharp criticism from environmentalists for his Alaska trip, which begins Monday. One activist organization, CREDO, said the president’s visit is a symbol of “the self-defeating hypocrisy of his policies on energy and climate.”

“Climate leaders don’t drill the Arctic,” the group said in an online petition. “Talking about the urgency of climate change while allowing massive fossil fuel extraction isn’t leadership, it’s hypocrisy.”

Obama said in his weekly address that he shares concerns about offshore oil drilling, noting he remembers the BP oil spill in the Gulf “all too well.” But he said the United States still has to rely on oil and gas while it is transitioning toward renewable energy sources, such as wind and solar.

“As long as that’s the case, I believe we should rely more on domestic production than on foreign imports, and we should demand the highest safety standards in the industry — our own,” Obama said.

He noted that while his administration issued a permit to Shell to drill off the Alaskan coast, it also mandated strict safety standards that the company has yet to meet.

“It’s a testament to how rigorous we’ve applied those standards that Shell has delayed and limited its exploration off Alaska while trying to meet them,” Obama said. “The bottom line is, safety has been and will continue to be my administration’s top priority when it comes to oil and gas exploration off America’s precious coasts.”

During his three-day trip, Obama is scheduled to participate in a climate change conference in Anchorage, tour a glacier and travel to coastal fishing towns.

“I’m looking forward to talking with Alaskans about how we can work together to make America the global leader on climate change around the globe,” he said. “Because what’s happening in Alaska is happening to us. It’s our wakeup call, and as long as I’m president, America will lead the world to meet the threat of climate change before it’s too late.”