Climate change has fallen off the table in U.S. politics, very unfortunately since climate change is still one of the world’s biggest issues (when we are talking about the issue of human livability, the future of life on this planet, and such things).
On Friday, David Corn of Politics Daily wrote: “This week, as the Cancun conference was kicking off, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs didn’t refer to it once during the three press briefings he held.”
Corn also delved into Obama’s change of priorities and messaging. Obama won’t hardly mention the topic these days. Compare that to this statement from his 2007 campaigning:
We cannot afford more of the same timid politics when the future of our planet is at stake. Global warming is not a someday problem, it is now. We are already breaking records with the intensity of our storms, the number of forest fires, the periods of drought. By 2050 famine could force more than 250 million from their homes. . . . The polar ice caps are now melting faster than science had ever predicted. . . . This is not the future I want for my daughters. It’s not the future any of us want for our children. And if we act now and we act boldly, it doesn’t have to be.
Well, the threat according to climate science from the past year and the records have escalated dramatically, but we are back to timid politics… hmm. The biggest climate conference of the year, and the White House isn’t even mentioning it.
The questions that we are facing:
- How can we address climate change if we don’t see it as a leading global and national issue?
- How can we see climate change as a leading issue if our leaders won’t even talk about it?
- How are we going to avoid the hellish world waiting for us in the coming decades?
Any good suggestions?
Photo Credit: tsevis via flickr (CC license)
I'm the director of CleanTechnica, the most popular clean energy website in the world, and Planetsave, a leading green and science news site. I've been covering green news of various sorts since 2008, and I've been especially focused on solar energy, electric vehicles, bicycling, and wind energy for the past few years. You can also find my work on Scientific American, Reuters, Think Progress, GE's ecomagination site, several sites in the Important Media network, & many other places. To connect on some of your favorite social networks, go to zacharyshahan.com or click on some of the links below.
