Given the events of this summer, Iowa seems like as good a place as any to try this out.
If you want to hear more of it, might be good to let him know.
From His August 28 Speech in Ames, Iowa:
And I know that’s a pretty heavy idea to lay on you on a Tuesday. (Laughter.) But it’s true. The decisions we make as a country on big issues like the economy and jobs and taxes and education and energy and war and climate change — all these decisions will directly affect your life in very personal ways. And I’ve got to say, this is something I’m acutely aware of when I make these decisions, because they’re decisions that are going to affect Malia and Sasha, my daughters, as well.
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Will this be a country that keeps moving away from foreign oil and towards renewable sources of energy like wind and solar and biofuels — (applause) — energy that makes our economy more secure, but also makes our planet more secure? (Applause.)
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Governor Romney wants to pass a new $5 trillion tax cut targeted towards the wealthiest Americans. That’s not going to cut our debt. Ignoring inequality doesn’t make it go away. Denying climate change won’t make it stop. These things won’t make for a brighter future. They won’t make your future stronger.
Actions speak louder than words and until political leaders of any persuasion pull their heads out of their collective arses and start listening, stop talking and start doing I will remain cynical. That said, an Obama doing little is better than Mr Magic Underpants dragging you back into the 1950’s.
Roosevelt said ” I agree with you, I want to do it, now make me do it.”
Political will is always driven by the people….and the media these days. I hope your country can put an end to the anti-science movement and generate political will. So too, in this country. I think you have a steeper slope to climb in that regard. Maybe this year’s ice will be a catalyst.
I’ve heard that this winter is supposed to be a cold one for NorthAm. If that’s the case, the fair-weather sheep will quickly be swayed by the deniers – again.
A little campaign rhetoric doesn’t impress me. Obama’s record has been quite clear. He’s cleared a path for vastly increased domestic fossil fuel exploitation. He’s maintained an ethanol policy that makes no sense in today’s world with drought created shortages of corn. He’s been no advocate of any significance regarding championing wind power, except on the stump in Iowa, but never when it comes to confronting Congress to extend the tax credits that have driven the wind and solar industries.
I’m much more inclined to follow Molly Ivins advice that when it comes to politicians, there’s only three things that matter, “the record, the record and the record”. Barack Obama’s got a record of grandstanding on the Keystone XL pipeline while giving its southern extension a quiet go-ahead, of supporting the exploitation of coal as a fuel source and maintains our U.S. military’s presence in the oil-rich Middle East.
A couple of sentences about climate change tossed around at a college campus simply do not compare to the record.
sorry, but I remember hearing those kind of arguments a few elections ago, and they usually ended with “… and there’s not a dime’s worth of difference between Al Gore and George Bush…”
we saw how that one came out.
And I agree with you. It would have been different with an Al Gore in the White House.
But…. and I never thought I’d say this…. Barack Obama is no Al Gore.
You see, Al Gore went on from his surrender in December, 2000 to make quite a tidy sum as an early investor in a lot of alternative energy startups that benefitted in many ways from Mr. Gore’s government networking.
I expect Obama to take a more direct approach with Wall Street when he steps down and follow in the footsteps of Bill Clinton and Tony Blair, turning a golden rolodex into a pile of gold.
The problem is not that we have a two party system. The problem is that we have a one party system with a stunningly acquiescent media helping to create the illusion of choice.
In the end, the real owners of this nation will have their way no matter which party’s figurehead sits in the Oval Office.
well, then. I guess we can all go home and watch tv.
I appreciate Obama’s under the radar actions, but I think political resolve will only occur only if Obama confronts them head on.
I see strategic value of not mentioning climate change during the election, but failing to make it a front burner item during the campaign will make it that much harder to bring up during the 2nd term.
Obama’s semi-embrace of natural gas is an illustration of the problem.
By the way, terrific coverage about the arctic ice over the last week.
Politics is always about the possible. Politifact’s pledge-meter may provide some counter-evidence to your beliefs (http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/promises/obameter/subjects/energy/). The record isn’t stella, but he is facing a hostile GOP — a crowd that would prefer the other guy to lose over the USA winning.
Increasing domestic fossil fuel production probably isn’t that stupid in the current political climate. We are almost at the crossover with alternatives anyway. (I wonder what the GOP will do then.) China has followed a similar “all-fronts” policy on energy, and together with the USA are world-leaders in alternative energy technologies.
I agree that the ethanol thing is pretty silly. We should still be developing the science of such processes, but not tearing up our land and changing world food prices.
Romney wants to drill-baby-drill and build the tarsand bitumen pipeline and frack like there is no tomorrow — and he denies that we humans are causing this climate change…
Renewable energy and climate change in the same speech, in Iowa which is the wind power leader in the USA, and I’ll take Obama in a second. He can’t lose the votes of those who are already set against him by mentioning the “c word”.
Neil
Read Romney’s energy plan – it’s insane. It’ll give us a few extra months/years of fossil fuels and in return we’ll tear up the national parks and coastlines, we’ll use vast amounts of fresh water to produce this energy, we’ll shred the Clean Air and Clean Water Acts, and we’ll set back renewables at least a decade. And still, we’ll not even be close to “energy independence” – it’s a bald-faced lie or extreme stupidity to suggest we can achieve it WITHOUT massive investment in renewables (even then we’re looking at a deep scale-down in energy usage to manage true independence).
I agree with rayduray that Obama has a seriously poor record in his first term regarding climate change. He’s virtually ignored it, and our policies are only slightly better than they were under Bush. But compare what Obama proposes and what Romney proposes – and there shouldn’t be any doubt which candidate will be better for the environment. Additionally, Obama in a second term will be freer to implement policies he couldn’t do in his first term.
That said, I’m personally too jaded by our current form of government. I think we’ve descended into full-bloom plutocracy. The only chance we have at real democracy is when large groups stand up and make themselves heard. THIS is the real reason for the denial machine – it’s an attempt to hamstring the public outcry (the plutocracy hard at work, again).
To have a real change in direction, we’ll need both major public demand AND political leaders open to change. A Romney Presidency would block that second part. It’s hard enough with Obama and Congress.
Now you are talking. I agree with Peter and I said it before. Vote for Obama and “make him do it”.
Whatever you do, don’t just vote and think you are done. Protest Enbridge. Blog. Write your representatives. Do whatever it takes. Get active. There is only one planet and it IS your back yard.
Re: “Now you are talking. I agree with Peter and I said it before. Vote for Obama and “make him do it”. ”
You do realize you are talking about a throw away pep rally at an undergraduate gathering, where the voting rights of the kids who were assembled to hear these words are at severe jeopardy across America due to the behind-the-scenes actions of hundreds or possibly thousands of county clerks?
Do you have any idea what’s going on with the voting franchise this year? 33 states are attempting to disenfranchise as many Democratic leaning voters as possible. The tactics are legion. You have voter caging, disenfranchisement of students in their campus locations, disenfranchisement of old people without government issued photo ID. Disenfranchisement in my own personal case because I haven’t bothered to vote since November, 2010 and have been deemed “inactive” by a Republican County Clerk.
If you can’t see what is going on, you need to read a different blog. One that discusses voter disenfranchisement and how this is going to go hand in hand with how the right wing Republicans control all of the HAVA-DRE machines in America and have been told by the Republican Supreme Court that they need not ever divulge their proprietary means of counting our votes to any public official in this nation.
It’s way past time for do-gooders to get real. You are living in a world of illusion.
one of the most devastating effects of the Bush presidency has been the change in the supreme court, and in lower courts, that has given us, among other things, Citizens United.
That’s one of the most important reasons to vote for a president.there is no way we would have that had Gore been allowed to take office.
Ray – My point is… The last election was a failure because far too many people thought they could vote for a president and then fall asleep. Far from disagreeing with you, I agree the system is broken, and not the political system, either. I mean the corporatocrocy is working fine and maybe someone might realize that is what the problem is. So the election is nice, and Republicans stealing votes is nice, but it means little to the overall events relative to people taking action. Voter suppression did not happen yesterday. But getting totally depressed and defeated is not going to do it, either. Sorry, not a do gooder at all. Rather, I have seen votes suppressed, stolen, and bought and paid for by chickens and bottles of cheap wine probably before your ears were dry. I think you misinterpreted my comments to mean it was all about the election. Its not. It never will be. Thats not how politics works. Its not even how the system works. You are beginning to see the light. That’s what I was really saying. Then we can talk about why Obama is really plugging for coal and nuclear. So while you are paying attention to the election and stolen votes, you might begin to realize that its not whats happening, but who is doing it and why it is happening that counts. Remember, this is the administration that let Christopher be jailed. The one that drone assassinated whomever they deigned in any country. The one that only delayed the pipeline after the protests. The one that allowed Occupy protests to be brutally suppressed. The one that was all pro-nuke even after Fukushima. The one that was drill Gulf drill until after the Gulf oil spill disaster. The one that still thinks “All of the above” is a good energy policy. You get the idea. I think you are on that page. So what are you going to do about it? You have causes to fight for. There is a lot to win or lose. And its all for keeps. What were the civil rights movement up against? Its going to take an effort like that when stacked up against these odds. Just don’t get suckered into thinking letting Romney win doesn’t matter because Obama just isn’t green enough. You will have at least four years to think about your mistake. All politicians are alike. Pick the one most likely to respond to your platform and keep pressure on them to do so. And yes, work on that voter suppression.
Hi Christopher,
Thanks for your thoughts. We’re largely in agreement. Last night I read an interesting blog entry at the Arctic Sea Ice Blog. The matter at hand was the pollution of the blog with political talk. Most there agreed that the blog’s greatest feature was that it stuck to the facts and didn’t discuss politics.
I’m thinking that’s good advice for me on this blog.
So I’ll introduce a question now that relates strictly to atmospheric physics. I’m trying to think about climate change and how that might impact hurricanes. In the Atlantic Basin this year we’ve had two storms that acted oddly. Debby and Isaac both stalled as they crossed over from the Gulf onto land. And dumped massive amounts of rain. These stall patterns are similar after a fashion to the “blocking” patterns that set up the heat wave in Russia in 2010 and in the U.S. Midwest this year. These blocking patterns are being attributed to a weakening northern polar jet stream allowing the jet to meander across latitudes rather than the older pattern of a more west-to-east flow. I’m going to be curious to see if one of the effects of the loss of Arctic sea ice is a decline in the differential temperatures between the equator and the polar region, giving us hotter droughts in the summer, soupier tropical storms and colder wetter winters into lower latitudes. Dr. Jennifer Francis who has been cited on this blog seems to be a lead researcher on this topic. I look forward to hearing what she might have to say about any link between the Arctic turning into a massive slurpee and lower Louisiana turning into a massive marsh.
Cheerio
Well its a start from Obama- we cannot continue to follow the disastrous policies pf the last 30 years- the Stupefied American people will have to learn the hard way- as they did after Black Tuesday and Black Thursday in 1929.
You guys badly need electoral reform. A first past the post two horse race for Presidency which can be totally out of sync with the Congress (which can internally be out of sync with itself!) is just what the establishment ordered for no action on anything that matters until it’s pretty much too late.
The fact that a third candidate can only hurt progressive politics in your country is something you really need to work on this century.
Some great comments on this thread BTW.
Face it – climate change is inevitable nobody can stop it now.
Governments will react when they HAVE to just look at England before WW2.
The question you have to ask yourself is do you want OBAMA to run the country into the ground while he lines his own pockets.
Or do you want Romney a Business man who is already a self made millionaire in charge of the economy when he has stated clearly his primary goal is to make it better for everyone.
It was the American war machine that won WW2. The same applies to the economy and climate change. America needs a confident experienced business leader for its economy.
Romney is the Man, he is the real deal. It is a shame all the left wingers think OBAMA is going to change anything.
Romney is Not a extreme RIGHT winger, he just has to deal with that part of his party, he is a moderate politician with incredible business experience as well he has the great experience and success as a Governor on a State level. He does not need to be a President to make himself rich like Obama, he will improve the lifestyle of ALL American families. Obama lied about giving people HOPE , Romney will deliver.
Face it it was Stalins Russia who won the war at terrible costs. But he was not hindered by a democratic elected government which has to sell nice promises….
Grant,
Romney is already delivering. He’s delivering a death blow to my old home town in NW Illinois:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2012/aug/10/illinois-workers-bain-outsourcing
Don’t try to tell me Romney has nothing to do with this. He’s the one who created the monstrosity called Bain Capital and its predatory style is exactly what Romney will impose from the White House. All the while lining the pockets of his cronies.
It’s not over, by along chalk, there is something still worth fighting for. One shouldn’t let yourself be beaten by the melting the shouting or the running and screaming or the right wing wall of BS. May I suggest a musical interlude? The sentiment of this one has been on my mind a lot lately.