U.S. President Barack Obama is set to put his survival skills to the test when he treks through the Alaskan wilderness with British TV adventurer Bear Grylls this week.
As reported by NBC, the 54-year-old will become the first president to ever appear on TV show Running Wild with Bear Grylls which will air later this year on the U.S. network.
Obama’s appearance on the show is part of a three-day tour of Alaska to highlight the effects and the pace of climate change, and will include him renaming Mount McKinley to its original native Alaskan, ‘Denali’.
The president and the host will be trekking through the Alaskan wilderness in an effort to highlight the effects of climate change in that area. The episode, to be taped, will air on NBC later this year. “I will not deny your suspicion that there may have been some suggestions put forward by the Bear Grylls team that were not approved by the Secret Service," White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest told reporters aboard Air Force One on Monday, as the president headed to Alaska and the Arctic Circle.
Uh...could one of those suggestions be he has to drink his own urine as a Grylls "survival technique"? After the news broke Monday, quick as a flash, a smartaleck put up a petition on the White House's petition site, demanding that POTUS drink his own urine. "For science."
"President Barack Obama is scheduled to meet with Bear Grylls during his visit to Alaska, who will give the president a 'crash course in survival techniques.' If there's one thing we all know about Bear Grylls' techniques, it's that they mostly involve drinking his own urine," the petition read. "And so: We ask that Obama do the right thing and drink his own urine during a taping of Running Wild with Bear Grylls. For science. The people demand it."
"Running Wild" is in its second season and often features A-list stars — such as Kate Winslet and Channing Tatum — and other popular personalities — such as our very own Tamron Hall — as guests, taking them into the wild and testing their mettle against nature. Obama has been recently promoting his interests around the entertainment world. In July he visited a federal prison as part of a Vice documentary that will air in September. And this isn't the first time he's addressed issues in Alaska. On Sunday the Department of the Interior announced that Mt. McKinley, the highest peak in North America, will (as mentioned above) be called by the name used by the indigenous Athabascan people, Denali.
We imagine a lot of Americans are going to be very interested to see whether Obama is more macho and rugged than they thought. And also it is a good move for the president to show his concern about the environment through his statements. Stay tuned and leave a comment with your opinion on the President making an appearance on a wild life show!
