From Peril to Progress

President Obama began the week by officially and aggressively changing U.S. policy on the Climate Crisis.

Placing the crisis in the context of the need to not only stimulate the economy but to create a new future-oriented economy by addressing renewable energy needs and opportunities, the President spoke plainly about the Climate Crisis:

These urgent dangers to our national and economic security are compounded by the long-term threat of climate change, which if left unchecked could result in violent conflict, terrible storms, shrinking coastlines and irreversible catastrophe. These are the facts and they are well known to the American people -- after all, there is nothing new about these warnings.

Year after year, decade after decade, we've chosen delay over decisive action. Rigid ideology has overruled sound science. Special interests have overshadowed common sense. Rhetoric has not led to the hard work needed to achieve results.

Now America has arrived at a crossroads. Embedded in American soil and the wind and the sun, we have the resources to change. Our scientists, businesses and workers have the capacity to move us forward. It falls on us to choose whether to risk the peril that comes with our current course or to seize the promise of energy independence. For the sake of our security, our economy and our planet, we must have the courage and commitment to change.

It will be the policy of my administration to reverse our dependence on foreign oil, while building a new energy economy that will create millions of jobs. We hold no illusion about the task that lies ahead. I cannot promise a quick fix; no single technology or set of regulations will get the job done. But we will commit ourselves to steady, focused, pragmatic pursuit of an America that is free from our energy dependence and empowered by a new energy economy that puts millions of our citizens to work.

Today, I'm announcing the first steps on our journey toward energy independence, as we develop new energy, set new fuel efficiency standards, and address greenhouse gas emissions. "

In reversing the Bush order that prevented California from implementing standards to reduce carbon emissions, Obama said: "The days of Washington dragging its heels are over. My administration will not deny facts, we will be guided by them. We cannot afford to pass the buck or push the burden onto the states. "

On the U.S. role in the global effort to address the Climate Crisis, he said:" we will make it clear to the world that America is ready to lead. To protect our climate and our collective security, we must call together a truly global coalition. I've made it clear that we will act, but so too must the world. That's how we will deny leverage to dictators and dollars to terrorists. And that's how we will ensure that nations like China and India are doing their part, just as we are now willing to do ours.

It's time for America to lead, because this moment of peril must be turned into one of progress. If we take action, we can create new industries and revive old ones; we can open new factories and power new farms; we can lower costs and revive our economy. We can do that, and we must do that. There's much work to be done. There is much further for us to go.

But I want to be clear from the beginning of this administration that we have made our choice. America will not be held hostage to dwindling resources, hostile regimes, and a warming planet. We will not be put off from action because action is hard. Now is the time to make the tough choices. Now is the time to meet the challenge at this crossroad of history by choosing a future that is safer for our country, prosperous for our planet, and sustainable."

Stories on the detailed proposals and reactions to them can be found here, here and here. Other steps were taken as well: Secretary of State Clinton named an experienced climate change envoy to the next round of international talks on the Climate Crisis, and the Environmental Protection Agency has hired a Climate Crisis advisor, a lawyer who argued successfully before the Supreme Court that the EPA has the authority to regulate carbon emissions under the Clean Air Act. EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson named the Climate Crisis as the agency's number one priority.

All of this is happening as the challenges ahead continue to prove grim. In a study sponsored by the Department of Energy, scientists conclude that climate change already underway is irreversible for the next 1,000 years, and will be considerably worse if steps aren't taken to cut emissions of greenhouse gases.
A separate study using computer simulations suggests that the Climate Crisis could deaden the planet's oceans for 100,000 years. "What mankind does for the next several decades will play a large role in climate on Earth over the next tens of thousands of years," said geochemist Gary Shaffer of the University of Copenhagen.

But the effects of past greenhouse gas pollution aren't so far in the future. Here in northern California, the winter rains haven't come, and the San Francisco Bay area is facing the possibility of water shortages and rationing this summer. The region has already experienced two years of drought, and other areas in the West have suffered under drought conditions for much longer.

While specific changes in rainfall can have other or many causes, the pattern indicates a Climate Crisis connection. Some of the problem has to do with the change of when seasonal phenomena (like rain) begin and end--in effect, the seasons themselves. This affects the entire ecosystem sooner or later, and now it is noticeably causing more of our trees to die. Trees are dying faster than ever in the old-growth forests of California and the mountains of the West, a phenomenon scientists say is linked to rising regional temperatures and the destructive forces of early snowmelt, drought, forest fires and deadly insect infestations brought on by global warming," according to the SF Chronicle. "Over the past 17 years in some regions - and 25 to 37 years in others - the death rates of mature trees have doubled, the scientists said, raising concerns that the problem goes well beyond the death of trees alone."