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On Alaska Visit, Obama To Highlight Climate Change

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President Barack Obama walks across the tarmac to board Air Force One before departing from Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland on August 31, 2015. Obama is heading for a three-day visit to Alaska. (Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images)
President Barack Obama walks across the tarmac to board Air Force One before departing from Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland on August 31, 2015. Obama is heading for a three-day visit to Alaska. (Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images)

President Obama is off to Alaska today for a three-day trip that is almost entirely focused on climate change. His visit is very much designed to highlight Alaska's extraordinary scenery and the already-visible effects of climate change there - melting glaciers and permafrost, and rising sea levels.

It will be the first time a sitting U.S. president visits the Alaskan Arctic. Before taking off, Obama announced that he is using his executive powers to rename Mount McKinley - the highest peak in the country - Denali, its traditional Native Alaskan name.

Here & Now's Lisa Mullins talks with Zachariah Hughes, a reporter with Alaska Public Media, about how the president's visit, and the renaming of Denali, are reverberating among Alaskans.

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This segment aired on August 31, 2015.

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