6 responses so far ↓

• 1 jackie sheeler // Oct 23, 2008 at 8:09 am

  all of this is true — but none of it seems like a good reason to ‘not be excited about obama’. i mean, if we hired another short-sighted, warmongering, corporate-pandering president like mcsame, there would be even fewer resources for the environment, right? i am confident that once obama makes some headway on the more immediate crises (and though i am a fierce environmentalist, i believe we need to get out of iraq and put the brakes on the coming depression before tackling that in a significant way) he and biden will immediately set about greening this country in a significant way.

  thanks for the post!

• 2 Yannai // Oct 23, 2008 at 8:36 am

  To list the environmental agenda as its own issue, in line with other issues like foreign affairs and the economy, is to make the very mistake that the environmental movement has always made: Staying on the sidelines and getting angry at everybody for not looking.

  Our most effective approach to climate change and ecological crises of today means advocating sustainability in the very context of foreign policy and economics, not to mention education, food policy, etc.

  If we, as environmentalists, see the environment as another set of policy problems with which we need to deal, then our decision makers will do the same. And next to headline issues like wars and market crashes, we’ll be fuming, passionate- and irrelevant- tree huggers, just like you write.

  But if we enter the Iraq discussion with the agenda of energy independence and fight for renewable energy development as a solution for a hurting economy, then we’re much more likely to be heard.

  Will Obama be the savior we’re hoping for? Who knows? The more important question for us is how will we approach an Obama presidency? If we do it as disgruntled environmentalists we can continue fretting about Obama and the rest of the world like good and classic environmentalists.

  But if we approach it the right way, and propose good solutions to problems America cares about, to a presidential ear that does care about us, we just might be able to help Obama be the leader we environmentalists know he needs to be.

• 3 Sandra Foyt // Oct 24, 2008 at 11:12 am

  I’m sure a lot people share your frustration that there is much damage that needs to be undone in the upcoming administration. However, I’m encouraged that environmental issues will be addressed because they are so obviously part of the solution to all major problems.

  In Hot, Flat, and Crowded, Thomas Friedman makes a compelling argument for putting environmental issues at the center of America’s public & foreign policy. I’m hopeful that this thinking will influence Obama’s administration.

• 4 sciencesays // Oct 24, 2008 at 11:36 am

  Sorry I didn’t make myself clearer guys - I’m VERY excited for Obama, and I’m very excited for alternative energy; my goal in this article was to report the undercurrent that I’m hearing here in Washington, and that has been “Crap, we’re on our own”

  Jackie - you’re right, plenty of reasons to be excited, and I do think their hearts are in the right place

  Yannai - you make a very interesting point about the effect of broader policy on the environment, and I do think energy independence will be a hot-button issue and a big help to our movement. Additionally, I’m not saying we as environmentalists should sit back and whine. Still, there are many urgent threats right now other than global warming, like our constnat overfishing, and the problems that global warming has caused, particularly in terms of endangered species, will not be undone just because we wean ourselves off oil - that will require management and careful regulation, and those are the sorts of issues that are very contentious in Congress and that I don’t believe Obama will have the time or political capital to address.

  Thanks a lot for that, very insightful point.

  Sandra - I haven’t read that book yet, but I’ve heard it’s a good one. Like Yannai said, it would be great to see these issues move from being an oft-neglected sector of their own to an important factor in broader policy. I think it’s happening with energy, and I hope it happens with other industries too.

• 5 polyGeek // Oct 24, 2008 at 2:55 pm

  Good observations. Especially predicting the scandal that Republicans will try and cook up before mid-terms. They’re like bull dogs. Once they get ahold of something they won’t let go.

  In the meantime I believe our only hope is using technology to cut back on greenhouse gas emissions. There is no way this country is going to change their lifestyle.

• 6 Donna | Amazing Wilderness // Oct 31, 2008 at 10:41 pm

  The situation reminds me of Steven Covey’s 7 Habits of Successful People… that the ‘urgent’ stuff that gets in our face gets attention before the ‘important’ stuff which is what really matters.

  All the things you mention, the economy, the wars - that’s the stuff perceived as urgent. But is it really important? I’d argue no. Because at the end of the day, if we screw the environment (like we are) we are all in trouble. Big trouble. The kind of trouble that will make bin Laden seem like an annoyance.

  My fear? That by the time the environmental issues become ‘urgent’ it will be too late. The one thing I take solace in… that Nature will spring back from it. Maybe humans won’t, but that might not be such a bad outcome.

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