Obama to train with Bear Grylls, visit Arctic Circle on climate campaign

BARACK Obama has really been branching out recently. His latest foray into popular media could turn into the bravest presidential PR stunt of all time.

HE’S climbed inside a dead deer and drunk his own urine to survive. Now extreme adventurer Bear Grylls will train US President Obama in his own brand of survival tactics.

NBC confirmed the President will appear in an episode of Running Wild with Bear Grylls, the celebrity-packed series that has also featured Kate Winslet, Michelle Rodriguez and Ed Helms.

It’s the first time a President has appeared on the show and is part of Obama’s current push to engage mainstream media to highlight his efforts on everything from same-sex marriage to prison reform and climate change.

The prospect of Obama sharing screen time with Grylls has already spawned a petition on the White House website, calling for the president to “drink his own urine” on camera.

The announcement comes as Obama leaves for a three day tour of Alaska, making him the first sitting President to enter the Arctic Circle.

The trip will highlight the changing environment by showing shorelines and melting permafrost and comes ahead of the UN Climate Change Conference in Paris later this year that aims to provide global reform on the issue.

Even before he departed, Obama was making waves as he announced his administration would change the name of North America’s tallest peak, the 6,193-meter Mount McKinley, to Denali, its traditional Athabascan name.

The gesture was a major show of solidarity with the Alaska Arctic’s native people, who have received less attention amid Obama’s recent efforts to improve conditions for Native Americans in the mainland US. However it prompted a backlash from legislators in McKinley’s native Ohio.

You want me to do what Bear? US President Barack Obama is making a final push for climate change ahead of a global summit in November.

Yet Obama was to navigate far more turbulent political waters in Anchorage, where his grand declarations on climate change have been met with scepticism by leaders in a state that’s heavily dependent on oil revenues, which have fallen precipitously.

At the same time, environmental groups warned that Obama hadn’t done enough to protect Alaska and the climate. They took particular offence at his administration’s move just a few weeks ago to give Royal Dutch Shell a final permit for expanded drilling off Alaska’s northwest coast.

“I share people’s concerns about offshore drilling. I remember the BP spill in the Gulf of Mexico all too well,” Obama said in his weekly address. Yet he said the U.S. economy still had to rely on oil and gas while it transitions to cleaner renewable fuels, and said his administration was ensuring those risks were minimised.

Obama was to hold a listening session with Alaska Natives before speaking at a climate-focused Arctic summit, which involves leaders from Arctic and non-Arctic nations.

Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry are intensely focused on a global climate treaty that nations hope to finalise in December, as the president works to secure his environmental legacy before leaving office. He has pledged to cut greenhouse gas emissions by up to 28 per cent by 2030.