Intellpuke: This
commentary was written by Spiegel journalist Christian Schwagerl,
writing from Berlin, Germany, and appeared in the Spiegel edition for
Tuesday, November 17, 2009.
U.S. President Barack Obama came to office
promising hope and change. But on climate change, he has followed in
the footsteps of his predecessor, George W. Bush. Now, should the
climate summit in Copenhagen fail, the blame will lie squarely with
Obama.
The folder labeled "climate change" that George W. Bush left behind
for his successor on the desk of the Oval Office in January likely
wasn't a thick one. Although Bush once said that America is overly
dependent on oil, he never got beyond that insight. He was too busy
waging war on Iraq and searching for a legal basis for extraordinary
renditions to pay much attention to the real threat facing humanity.
"Forget the climate" seems to have been Bush's unofficial motto.
But few people expected that Barack Obama, of all people, would continue his predecessor's climate change
plan. When he took office at the beginning of 2009, it was clear that
the success of the U.N. Climate Change Summit in Copenhagen in December
depended almost entirely on the U.S. - that America needed to take a
clear leadership role on a problem that could shake civilization to its
very core.
Only if the U.S. manages to reduce its excessive energy consumption,
commit itself to mandatory CO2 emission reduction targets and help
finance poorer countries' move away from oil is there still a chance
that countries like China and India will do the same and that a
dangerous warming of the Earth can be stopped. On the weekend, Obama announced
that there would be no agreement on binding rules in Copenhagen. It was
the admission of a massive failing - and the prelude to a truly
dramatic phase of international climate policy.
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