WASHINGTON: Unites States President Barack Obama will officially end the 40-year battle over what to call tallest peak that has been known as Mount McKinley by restoring its name ‘Denali’.
The White House will push during Obama’s remaining 16 months as president to ensure his fight to address climate change is part of his legacy.
The historic change, coming at the beginning of a three-day presidential trip to Alaska.
Renaming the mountain, which has an elevation of more than 20,000 feet (6,100 meters), makes headlines for his climate quest while also creating goodwill in a state that has not been broadly supportive to the Democratic president.
The US President is slated to tour the glacier and meet with people in remote Arctic communities whose way of life is affected by rising ocean levels, creating images designed to build support for regulations to curb carbon emissions.
The peak was named Mount McKinley in 1896 after a gold prospector exploring the region heard that Ohioan William McKinley, a champion of the gold standard, had won the Republican nomination for president.
