In Alaska, Obama to Walk Fine Line on Climate Change, Energy

With melting glaciers and rising seas as his backdrop, President Barack Obama will visit Alaska next week to press for urgent global action to combat climate change

Steam rises from the eight cooling towers at the Ferrybridge power station near Leeds, in the north of England, on Oct. 30, 2006. Paul Ellis/AFP/Getty Images

WASHINGTON—With melting glaciers and rising seas as his backdrop, President Barack Obama will visit Alaska next week to press for urgent global action to combat climate change, even as he carefully calibrates his message in a state heavily dependent on oil.

Obama will become the first sitting president to visit the Alaska Arctic when he travels to Kotzebue — population 3,153 — just north of the Arctic Circle at the end of his three-day trip. He'll kick off the visit Monday with a speech to a State Department-hosted conference on climate change and the Arctic.

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