Obama Moves to Bring Order to Groups Dealing with Arctic Warming

As Senate votes were rolling in Wednesday—declaring climate change real, but denying mankind's role in it—President Barack Obama was issuing a different kind of decree. In the first executive order after his State of the Union address, the White House created the Arctic Executive Steering Committee, which will attempt to wrangle the numerous agencies in charge of Arctic programs and better coordinate their work in the face of climate change. 

"Over the past 60 years, climate change has caused the Alaskan Arctic to warm twice as rapidly as the rest of the United States," Obama said in the order, "and will continue to transform the Arctic as its consequences grow more severe."

The order included the United States' responsibility to "mitigate the greenhouse gas emissions driving climate change" and to be ruled by "science-based decision making."

It comes in the lead-up to the United States' taking over leadership of the Arctic Council, a voluntary intergovernmental forum consisting of the Arctic states and a number of observer nations that addresses environmental and economic development issues in the Arctic. In April, the U.S. will take the helm from Canada, which has led the council for the last two years.

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