I’ve often written about American politics and climate change in this blog. It’s a bit of a bugbear of mine.
Last week I read the transcript of Obama’s State of the Union address. I am feeling suitably warm of heart just now.
He gave us the clearest indication yet that the discussion is over on whether climate change is a man-made phenomenon or not. Here’s how he did it: “Climate Change is fact.”
Followed by “when our children’s children look us in the eye and ask if we did all we could to leave them a safer, more stable world… I want us to be able to say yes, we did.”
So our climate is changing, and we’re a great deal to do with that change.
But there are two things that have given me a renewed optimism for the USA’s position in the climate change debate.
The first is the position given to his statement on Climate Change. The only issues placed higher up the bill were the economy, Medicare and foreign policy. To have an American president put such a high premise on Climate Change is fantastic news. I hope that it will be reflected in his actions.
The second is the way he described what his administration has done so far and how it will continue to operate. Obama talked about how businesses have the will and his administration will help them. There is a lot of rhetoric like “partnering” and “working with”. This is the kind of language that needs to be used. It’s too easy to say ‘Climate Change is a global issue, so it’s a political issue’. This is a fallacy though. We’re all to blame. And collaboration is the only way we can have an impact and working with businesses and individuals, rather than dictating to them, is how politicians need to frame the debate.
After all, there’s unity in a Union.