and donald trump. are you a fan of president trump? yeah, he does good things. he does bad things. i m grateful that he got that bill passed. reporter: december s tax cut bill also opened the arctic refuge to drilling and the government is now moving fast to lease 8,000 acres on this coastal plain. this is where the last caribou give birth, a place of life and beauty made all the more fragile by a staggering rise in arctic temperatures. do you believe in climate change? you think it exists? there is a cooling and there is a heating. the icecaps were going to melt. they were going to be gone by now, but now they re setting records. reporter: that s the exact opposite of the truth. and this time lapse of the nasa satellite data shows the relentless burning of fossil fuels is melting the arctic at a record pace, including the oldest, thickest ice seen here in white. which is why more and more
one reason may be that unlike the president, she is one republican who believes in man-made climate change but wants her state to keep drilling regardless. if this will happen here, it would just destroy the entire place. reporter: up in the refuge, the photographer is one outsider who s spent years here. capturing the magic of this place. and he opens everyone, including the good folks everywhere, will take the long view. i m driving a car. but i feel we need to think in new ways. we need to think of new technologies and stay with the value of keeping wild landscapes. because once they re gone, they re gone. reporter: bill weir, cnn, alaska. we ll bring you part 3 of bill s fascinating special report there tomorrow morning. a terrifying moment at the tour de france when a cyclist
russia. it s hard to imagine that anything other than bad history will be written about that. bill, i should just note, when it comes to politics, people said, yeah, yeah, he s been a big contributor of hillary clinton s campaign, you say, you have not contributed to political campaigns. correct? zero. i ve made zero political contributions to hillary clinton or any other candidate in the united states. on the issue of tough actions on russia, i hear your point on the rhetoric. but would you concede that the trump administration s actions when it comes to the arming of ukraine, the sanctions that the president signed, although his hand was very much forced by congress here, are tougher on russia or tough on russia? i would not only concede that, i ve been publicly complimenting the trump administration on their tough actions towards russia, in particular the sanctions that they have imposed on the richest
bill passed. reporter: december s tax cut bill also opened the arctic refuge to drilling and the government is now moving fast to lease 800,000 acres on this pristine coastal plain. this is where the last great caribou herds give birth, place brimming with life and beauty, made all the more fragile by a staggering rise in arctic temperature. do you believe in climate change? do you think it exists is this. there is a cooling and there is a heating. if the ice caps were going to be gone they would be gone by now but now they re setting records. reporter: i that s the exact opposite of the truth. this time lapse of nasa s satellite data shows burning of fossil fuels is burning the arctic at a record pace. that s why these guys are wandering into town. they need sea ice to hunt seals
tried. every single president tried. i said, you ve got to be k kidding, i love it now. he talked me into it. reporter: december s tax cut bill also opened anwar to drilling, thanks to alaska s senator lisa murkowski, who slipped in the provision, knowing that it would only need 51 instead of 60 votes to pass. it is wrong for those, from the outside looking in, who have taken a nice trip into an area and said, this must be protected. reporter: but conservation t conservationists point out, there is already a huge glut of american oil. and oil companies are laying people off up here, right, because prices are so low. oil companies have been laying people off, and for the first time in the last five years, i was seeing more oil company workers leaving the state of alaska and going to places like north dakota than coming into the state. reporter: but much like trump s efforts to revive dying coal mines, the rush to drill