The greatest threat of our time
by David Atkins
President Obama lays out the stakes on climate:
President Obama on Wednesday called climate change the “global threat of our time” in a speech in Berlin.
Amid signs the White House is getting ready to unveil new executive-level steps to curb greenhouse gases, Obama linked fighting climate change to peace and justice while calling for bold action.
“Peace with justice means refusing to condemn our children to a harsher, less hospitable planet,” he said in a speech at Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate. “The effort to slow climate change requires bold action.”
Obama touted his first-term work on green energy and boosting auto efficiency rules, but added: “We know we have to do more — and we will do more.”
The White House within the next few weeks is expected to outline executive actions to be taken by the Environmental Protection Agency and other departments.
Obama’s climate aide Heather Zichal previewed the plan in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday.
Obama said Wednesday that a global climate accord is needed.
“With a global middle class consuming more energy every day, this must now be an effort of all nations, not just some. For the grim alternative affects all nations — more severe storms, more famine and floods, new waves of refugees, coastlines that vanish, oceans that rise. This is the future we must avert,” Obama said.
For the Game of Thrones fans out there, watching all the fights over budgets and social issues in Congress is a bit like watching the Houses in the kingdoms fight over the Iron Throne. Yes, we care deeply about those fights and hope to see the bad guys thrown out of power so that peace and justice can reign.
But from another perspective, spending my time obsessing over these issues while climate change looms over us is a bit like cheering on Starks and Tyrells over Lannisters and Greyjoys, all the while knowing that none of it makes a day’s bit of difference given the ominous threats from the north and the east that will kill everyone if they’re not addressed.
Budgets can be fixed. Generations currently alive will suffer if they are mismanaged. But a wrecked climate is potentially a disaster that affects all future generations and the fate of the human race.
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