Obama's breathtaking Alaska Instagram photos reveal something ominous
President Barack Obama is on a three-day trip to Alaska to bring attention to climate change, and his pictures on the White House Instagram account give us a glimpse of the Last Frontier's stunning natural beauty.
A spectacular end to day two in Alaska. -bo
A photo posted by The White House (@whitehouse) on Sep 1, 2015 at 11:51pm PDT on Sep 1, 2015 at 11:51pm PDT
Obama is the first sitting president to visit the Alaskan Arctic. He kicked off his trip Monday with a speech about how global warming is a growing crisis and Alaskans are already feeling its effects.
If this continues, "We will condemn our children to a planet beyond their capacity to repair," he said in the speech.
Here's a pic of Alaska's appropriately named Exit Glacier. The glacier has retreated more than 6,500 feet between 1815 and 1996 — about 43 feet per year, according to the National Park Service. In fact, the amount of water that has melted off Alaska's glaciers over the past 50 years would fill a billion Olympic-size swimming pools.
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 on Sep 1, 2015 at 5:51pm PDT
The president took a selfie with this sign, one of many near Exit Glacier that show how much it has receded over time.
"The impacts of climate change are real, and the people of Alaska are living with them every day," he wrote in the caption.
A photo posted by The White House (@whitehouse) on Sep 1, 2015 at 5:43pm PDT on Sep 1, 2015 at 5:43pm PDT
The president snapped a few aerial shots from Marine One near Seward, Alaska:
A photo posted by The White House (@whitehouse) on Aug 31, 2015 at 2:32pm PDT on Aug 31, 2015 at 2:32pm PDT
Here's another:
Spectacular view from Marine One as we near Seward. -bo
A photo posted by The White House (@whitehouse) on Sep 1, 2015 at 4:49pm PDT on Sep 1, 2015 at 4:49pm PDT
And one more:
A photo posted by The White House (@whitehouse) on Sep 1, 2015 at 4:51pm PDT on Sep 1, 2015 at 4:51pm PDT
As Mashable points out, Obama is a "#nofilter kind of guy."
A photo posted by The White House (@whitehouse) on Sep 1, 2015 at 11:30pm PDT on Sep 1, 2015 at 11:30pm PDT
Obama showed off his witty sense of humor in this post with British TV adventurer Bear Grylls, on whose show "Running Wild with Bear Grylls" the president will make an appearance, according to NBC.
There's even a petition going around begging the president to drink his own urine.
Glad this was the only Bear I met in the park. -bo
A photo posted by The White House (@whitehouse) on Sep 1, 2015 at 10:39pm PDT on Sep 1, 2015 at 10:39pm PDT
Earlier this year, Obama launched the Every Kid in a Park initiative, which lets every fourth-grader across the country visit our public lands for free during the 2015-16 school year.
Here he is posing with a young girl he met at Kenai Fjords National Park:
A photo posted by The White House (@whitehouse) on Sep 1, 2015 at 5:18pm PDT on Sep 1, 2015 at 5:18pm PDT
You can watch the full YouTube video of Obama's Alaska trip, posted by the White House, below:
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