According to this article in the Guardian, Obama has no leeway, not a second to lose. The biggest clock of all, the climate, is ticking:
Barack Obama has only four years to save the world. That is the stark assessment of Nasa scientist and leading climate expert Jim Hansen who last week warned only urgent action by the new president could halt the devastating climate change that now threatens Earth. Crucially, that action will have to be taken within Obama’s first administration, he added.
I tell you, I would not want that man’s job. He has to bring so much together so fast and so well that there’s very, very little room for error. Two solid things–the economy and the ecology–have to be tackled brilliantly, right out of the gate. Two less tangible things–hope and transparency–have to be nurtured with care. If he pulls this off, if our elected official allow him to, if we keep our elected officials in line with emails, letters, and phone calls, then we all deserve the biggest party the world has ever seen.
So, go us!
Nicola Griffith 
I don’t see tackling our energy and our economy as separate. I think undergoing a massive project to de-carbon our energy infrastructure will put many to work and put money into the economy in much more fruitful places than being hoarded by Bank of America. This is why I say the automakers shouldn’t be bailed out, they should be purchased by the taxpayers and retooled to make wind and solar thermal turbines. Let’s get some usable infrastructure out of that money.
I’m not particularly optimistic about the likllehood of the US turning this stuff around in 4 years, but if people can be forced to see and believe the reality of that article, then maybe it will happen. I certainly hope we get to a point to deserve that party.Did you see < HREF="http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/dec/31/cement-carbon-emissions" REL="nofollow">that article about cement<> on that page you linked to? That is very cool. I didn’t even know that about cement’s carbon footprint.
I’m on a mission to become more optimistic and happy… But I have to agree with Dave and Jennifer. Hansen has been voicing his concerns and issuing warnings for twenty years. Have we listened? Even the first-hand experience of the symptoms—harsher winters and summers, hurricanes where they weren’t supposed to happen, multi-million dollar dams being breeched by floods, massive bee die-outs, sharks moving into deeper waters as a result of ocean warming and current change, entire schools of salmon failing to show up at the river banks this year, and so on—is not enough for us to snap out of our trance. People find ways to blame it on this or that cold or hot front, “…and next year the weather will go back to normal, you wait and see.” The reality of human-triggered climate change is too scary for us to acknowledge, the adjustments required to save ourselves are too drastic, and we’re too lazy and selfish to care. Something I hear often at dinner tables these days is, “Did you know that five years from now, there won’t be any more fish left in the sea? So we should eat a lot of fish while we still can, so stuff yourselves.” Wow… the logic in that is… crushing. And these are individuals who aren’t drooling after profit, but simply subject to basic old gluttony. I can only imagine what I would hear at the dinner tables of multinational corporations.
Okay. Optimistic. With all the access to information the general public has these days, it is really up to us to read those news and decide to do something to save ourselves. We don’t have to wait for Obama or the US politicians to lead the change. Of course, it would help if corporations weren’t bulling people into sustaining the current status quo. Dave, my sweetie and I were talking about the automaker bailout when it was news—I guess everyone was. The Canadian Government was bullied into giving $4 billion to subsidiaries of U.S. automakers in Ontario. Compare the bailout to the Canada Line project in Vancouver, which began construction aprox. two years ago:<>The Canada Line will be 19km long with 16 stations, and with bicycle paths under the North Arm Fraser Bridge and the South False Creek station. The cost of the construction contract is about $1.5 billion. InTransitBC is making an additional investment of $657 million as part of its obligation under the 35-year performance-based contract to design, build, operate, maintain and partially finance a transit system that will provide a transportation capacity equivalent to 10 major road lanes in a dense corridor where expanding roads and bridges is neither practical nor ecologically desirable. <>Save for NYC, pretty much every major city in the US could use funding to create efficient public transport systems. Same goes for Mexican ones. Even Mexico City’s impressive Metro could use a few more lines instead of the now-popular and accessible financing to purchase cars. Expanding metro and elevated train systems generates more jobs, and leaves nations with a useful and clean infrastructure instead of more tonnage for the landfills. I’ll keep the optimism coming. Vancouver is pretty eco-minded. We were commenting at a workshop about how shocking it was to go back to our homes for the holidays—even those who came from other provinces in Canada—and see people carrying plastic bags out of the stores instead of the cloth ones that are now customary in Vancouver. It was shocking to see so many SUVs, and smokers, and meat eaters, and find so few recycling bins or community gardens or reliable and clean public transport… I guess that means that there are a few places in the world where people listen and take action, and their action spreads to friends and neighbours, until an entire city becomes significantly eco-friendly in comparison to others. Is that more hopeful? I’m trying…
I do think there is a difference this time – a reason why we all might be motivated to really make the necessary changes, and that reason is the 4 year thing. We are out of time. People just need to be exposed to reality — with images, words, actions… And maybe in those things there is hope.
<>dave<>, of course they’re not separate, but not everyone can hear or see clearly when things get lumped together. Sometimes they need to be looked at one by one for the compartmentalisers of the world to understand. I do think Detroit should be retooled. The UK let it auto industry go in the ’80s. We survived pretty well. On the other hand, the economy is suffering *right now*. I don’t know if a radical retooling–i.e. to non-auto parts–could happen fast enough to stop the complete collapse of the regional economy. I can’t tell you how deeply I dread what could happen this year–not next, not five years, right now–if the current recession truly becomes a depression. For one thing, the climate will not be tackled. It’s a very delicate balancing act. I’m glad I’m not in charge.<>jennifer<>, I assume they’re really talking about concrete, not cement. (Drives me nuts that people almost always muddle those things up. Grr.)<>karina<>, no, no one has listened, because they didn’t understand that they had to. We’ve been trained, culturally, to think in one to five year terms. Let’s hope enough people can now break their training.It will begin, for many, with initiatives like < HREF="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jan/16/plastic-bags-india-delhi-ban" REL="nofollow">this<>.
Sweet. I *heart* that initiative in New Delhi. I hope it spreads worldwide.
I agree that kind of thing can be annoying, but I think maybe they got it right this time. It’s the heating necessary to create cement that causes part of the carbon emissions. I don’t think there’s any heating involved in making concrete – just the mixing.I think you are right about the bag law thing – it’s going to take strong laws to get people to change quickly. As for bags themselves, San Fransisco outlawed them in 2007 for most places I think. And LA passed a law in 2008 to ban plastic bags – too bad the law doesn’t go into effect until 2010. Like we need two years to get an alternative…
Yep, but then there’s the ‘load-bearing’ comment. Tuh.
Little But interesting Job!
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