Recently, President Obama spoke out about the issue of climate change in his 2013 Inaugural Address. Obama stated,
“We will respond to the threat of climate change, knowing that the failure to do so would betray our children and future generations. . . . Some may still deny the overwhelming judgment of science, but none can avoid the devastating impact of raging fires, and crippling drought, and more powerful storms. The path towards sustainable energy sources will be long and sometimes difficult. But America cannot resist this transition; we must lead it.”
Hearing this kind of talk gives us hope for the future. Maybe there is something we can do to address
the issues and perhaps our government and the people of the nation can come
together to find solutions to create effective change.
It turns out that even short of congressional action there
are a number of extremely significant things the executive branch could do to
reduce emissions, develop alternatives and move us closer to the radical,
generative transformation of our industrial life we must
have very soon. The environmental protection agency actually has the legal
authority to begin regulating carbon under the Clean Air Act–no need for
congressional approval. The executive branch is such a massive purchaser of
energy, vehicles and equipment; it could use that purchasing power to create
new, vibrant markets for clean energy.
Hope for the climate
There is hope for our future on earth even if the solutions are not realized tomorrow. Each individual can contribute to the change needed to come up with the solutions. The fact that our President acknowledges it makes climate change that much more real to everyone in the world. Perhaps acknowledging it as a problem is what it will take for our nation to move forward to a solution.