As President Obama visited Alaska this week, spending time in communities impacted by climate change and giving a powerful speech on the urgency of the issue, demonstrators greeted the president at a rally and questioned his recent approval of Shell’s Arctic drilling plans.
Hundreds of people rallied in Anchorage as President Obama spoke at the GLACIER conference, a ministerial meeting hosted by the State Department. Speakers from organizations around the state spoke at the rally — called the Rally to Confront the Glacial Pace of Political Action — including the Alaska NAACP, RedOil, Interfaith Climate Action Group, BAYAN Alliance, Unite Here Local 878, and Idle No More, as well as many individual speakers and activists.
The speakers, performers, and activists at the rally emphasized what they see as the President’s deeply hypocritical move to come to their state to highlight climate change immediately after he gave Shell approval to drill in the Arctic ocean. Seattle and Portland, the sites of two major protests against Shell’s Arctic drilling, held solidarity rallies as well.
Several people followed the president the next day as he traveled to the town of Seward where he visited receding glaciers.
