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Today is a new day. And with it has come a new voice.
Last night, in the decisive moment of an historic election, Barack Obama was confirmed as the President-Elect of the United States. When he took the stage to declare his victory, he delivered a speech of remarkable scope.
This was an election, he said, that proved that American is still a place where anything is possible. The proof was "spoken by young and old, rich and poor, Democrat and Republican, black, white, Hispanic, Asian, Native American, gay, straight, disabled and not disabled." It was not about states, not about constituencies, but about the United States in the singular sense of the word -- we are one nation, one people, who can, in moments that offer a sense of historical clarity, speak with one voice.
In listing those who told his story, Senator Obama forgot to name one people, one constituency, on whose behalf he spoke clearly: We, the Greens. We, the Environmentalists. We who tell a story of hope and of change.
That he did not name us does not mean he does not care about the mandate of climate change. Quite the opposite. To judge by the placement of the environment in his speech, it will form one of a few central narrative threads as his vision for the country unfolds.
Take the challenges that face us, the challenges he described as the "greatest of our lifetime -- two wars, a planet in peril, the worst financial crisis in a century."
Or take what he cited as what we know: "There's new energy to harness, new jobs to be created, new schools to build, and threats to meet, alliances to repair."
A planet in peril, provided with new energy to harness. It is a not yet a complete vision, but it is a sketch. And from that sketch one thing is clear: the next four years won't be like the last eight.
There is work to be done. The job of protecting and fighting for the environment is not yet complete. Obama does not amount to a de facto climate victory. Indeed, we are just getting started. But today is a new day. And today has a new voice.
As Obama said last night, "It's the answer that led those who've been told for so long by so many to be cynical and fearful and doubtful about what we can achieve to put their hands on the arc of history and bend it once more toward the hope of a better day."
Where this voice will take the environment is not yet clear. But if asked if we can address the challenge of climate change, let us draw on a simple phrase from our new national chorus.
Yes. Yes we can.
With the election of Barack Obama, yes, definitely yes, a new day is surely dawning for the family of humanity. We have good reasons to be hopeful. The agonizing throes of the severe and colossal storm we have endured in the past several years have produced an unexpected outcome. The air is being cleansed and the dark clouds that had been gathering on the horizon are being blown away.
Al Gore has reminded all of us that now is the time for intellectual honesty and moral courage as necessary attributes for responding ably to the human-driven global challenges which are looming ominously before humankind. As the horrendous, once in a century storm is being swept away by benevolent winds of change, perhaps we will see that honest and courageous activities of many people will begin to replace cascading, self-interested behavior of a few misguided, greedy people who have been willing to do whatsoever is politically convenient, economically expedient and socially fashionable... come what may for our children.
Perhaps sufficiently reality-oriented changes in policymaking and action planning, changes that protect biodiversity from mass extinction, prevent more wanton environmental degradation and preserve Earth's body from relentless dissipation as well as the children from endangerment, are in the offing.
Steven Earl Salmony
AWAREness Campaign on The Human Population,
established 2001
http://sustainabilityscience.org/content.html?contentid=1176
On the matter of bankrupting the human family's global economy.
It appears intellectual dishonesty is but one of the perverse ways in which old, out of touch leaders in my not-so-great generation are bankrupting the family of humanity.
Please note the way ideologically-driven leadership is providing ample evidence of being morally bankrupt and spiritually vacuous.
Unbridled greed and institutionalized fraud by mortgagors of our childrens' future are leading to decay within the financial system and threatening to ruin the real global economy.
Many too many economic powerbrokers and their bought-and-paid-for politicians are besmirching our honor and degrading the value of rational authority.
As I recall the course of human events, never in history have a few million stupendously rich people but otherwise bankrupt people stolen, consumed and hoarded so much of Earth's resource base, come what may for billions of other people in the human family who happen to be less fortunate. That a tiny minority of rich and powerful people have been so unfairly and inequitably rewarded by an economic scheme favoring their wanton avarice, is no longer a set of circumstances which can be concealed by the refusals of the mainstream media to bring up this situation for open discussion..... or by our collusive silence.
Thankfully, a new day is dawning.
Steven Earl Salmony
AWAREness Campaign on The Human Population,
established 2001
http://sustainabilityscience.org/content.html?contentid=1176
Dear Ben Carmichael, Ben Jervey, Ian Wilker and Friends of NRDC,
This GREENLIGHT website is a wonderful idea. Thanks for all you are doing to protect biodiversity from mass extinction, to preserve Earth's body from wanton dissipation, to halt relentless degradation of the environment and, with a bit of luck and a great deal of work, to save the family of humanity from reckless endangerment as well as to spare the human species from an even worse threat.
Sincerely yours,
Steve