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President Obama cites storms, drought to build case for climate action – ‘If Congress won’t act soon to protect future generations, I will’
By Coral Davenport
13 February 2013Fifteen years ago, when President Clinton raised the specter of climate change in his State of the Union address, he spoke of a “gathering crisis” that would need to be stopped “at some point in the next century.”
Now scientists say that crisis is starting to arrive – and President Obama has noticeably shifted his rhetoric, describing an urgent problem that’s here now, already harming American people.
“Yes, it’s true that no single event makes a trend. But the fact is, the 12 hottest years on record have all come in the last 15,” Obama said in Tuesday’s State of the Union address. “Heat waves, droughts, wildfires, and floods – all are now more frequent and more intense. We can choose to believe that superstorm Sandy, and the most severe drought in decades, and the worst wildfires some states have ever seen were all just a freak coincidence. Or we can choose to believe in the overwhelming judgment of science – and act before it’s too late.”
The focus on urgent present-day impacts is meant to build up public support for a slate of top-down executive actions meant to prevent future ravages of climate change – and also to adapt to the effects of climate change that Americans are already experiencing.
“President Clinton had to use future tense,” said Paul Bledsoe, an energy policy consultant who was a senior environmental policy aide in the Clinton White House. “Obama can use present tense with increasing conviction. The cost of climate change impact today will change the debate.”
Obama made clear that he intends to act on climate change – with or without Congress. He called on Congress to act on the issue, asking lawmakers to enact a bipartisan, cap-and-trade climate change bill. But he did so knowing that such a bill – which crashed in the Senate in 2010 – has almost no chance of success in today’s gridlocked Congress.
“If Congress won’t act soon to protect future generations, I will,” he said. [more]
Obama Cites Storms, Drought to Build Case For Climate Action
2013-02-16 05:51:30
Source: http://www.desdemonadespair.net/2013/02/president-obama-cites-storms-drought-to.html
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