"How's this? Beats being in the office," President Barack Obama called out as he hiked alongside Exit Glacier in Alaska on Tuesday.
The president is making a historic three-day trip to Alaska to address the severe consequences of climate change. In particular, his hike to the glacier was an urgent call to action to save the deteriorating landscape in the state, which has already seen the physical impact of climate change.
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On his second day in Alaska, Obama trekked to Exit Glacier in the Kenai Fjords National Park with photographers and members of the media to call attention to the impact of global warming.
Pres Obama says the receding glacier "is as good a signpost of Climate Change as anything." pic.twitter.com/H0IiyDjVG2— Mark Knoller (@markknoller) September 1, 2015
Referencing the signposts alongside the dry gravel path where the glacier once stood, he told reporters, "You guys have been seeing these signs as we walk that mark where the glacier used to be... This is as good of a signpost of what we're dealing with when it comes to climate change as just about anything."
"This place has lost about a mile and a half over the last couple hundred years. The reduction in glaciers has accelerated each and every year."
"What it indicates, because of the changing patterns of winter and less snow and longer, hotter summers, is how rapidly the glacier is receding. It sends a message," he said.
Markers throughout Exit Glacier show how much it's receded over time. The impacts of climate change are real, and the people of Alaska are living with them every day. It's never been more important for us to work together to address this challenge. -bo A photo posted by The White House (@whitehouse) on Sep 1, 2015 at 5:43pm PDT
Starting today, every 4th grader can now visit our public lands for free. The fact that this young person I met at Kenai Fjords National Park and kids from every background all across the country will get a pass to visit our national parks is cool, but it also speaks to something bigger —we're connecting kids with our heritage and history. -bo A photo posted by The White House (@whitehouse) on Sep 1, 2015 at 5:18pm PDT
What the president walked through was a landscape specific to a glacier's retreat, which occurs when the glacier melts away and becomes reduced in size, said Deborah Kurtz, the physical science program manager for Kenai Fjords National Forest.
"As the glacier retreats, it leaves behind bare ground, rock and no vegetation," she said, according to a White House pool report.
We need to make sure our grandkids can see this. -bo A photo posted by The White House (@whitehouse) on Sep 1, 2015 at 5:51pm PDT
Exit Glacier, which was at its maximum size in 1815, has retreated about 1.25 miles in the past 200 years as temperatures rose. Within the last year alone, Kurtz said, the glacier has retreated 187 feet.
"Climate is the primary driver of ice loss," she said.
The president's excursion served to present a visual representation of the harmful effects of human activity on the environment, which he spoke about at a a State Department-sponsored Arctic climate change conference on Monday.
"Human activity is disrupting the climate, in many ways faster than we previously thought," he said at the GLACIER conference in Anchorage. "The science is stark. It is sharpening. It proves that this once-distant threat is now very much in the present."
"It is spectacular," the president said about the glacier during his hike. "We want to make sure that our grandkids can see this."
After the hike, President Obama continued further into Kenai, where he is filming an episode of Running Wild With Bear Grylls to test his survival skills.