Dot Earth Blog: With Economy Still Trumping Emissions, Obama Plans an Education Push on Climate

In case you missed President Obama?s first long discussion of human-driven global warming in recent memory, which came near the end of his news conference on Wednesday, here?s the brunt of it, as summarized on Twitter by Will Oremus of Slate (found via Stephen Lacey):

The president actually did say quite a bit, which you can read in the transcript excerpt below. Among other things, he offered a sobering reality check in the face of a big, and largely wishful, push for a carbon tax as a budget fix.

Perhaps President Obama thought he could win points for sincerity by pledging in coming months to have ?a wide-ranging conversation with scientists, engineers and elected officials to find out what can ? what more can we do to make short-term progress in reducing carbons [sic].?

It?s certainly not the first time this has been done. Have a look back at my coverage from 2001 of President George W. Bush?s month-long series of briefings by climate scientists, including James E. Hansen of NASA, for the full Bush cabinet, including Vice President Dick Cheney. [*Here's a direct link to my piece describing the rigorous, even onerous, nature of this lecture series: "You'll Want to Take Notes, Folks. There Will Be a Test."]

To get a sense of the tutorials they received, click here to review the marvelous hand-drawn slides presented at the White House (and in various hearings) by Daniel Albritton, then a top government climate scientist. They are a model of clear science communication. Here?s one snippet:

Mr. Albritton?s findings demonstrate that the climate basics have been the same for a very long time. There are some shifts in understanding ? on Arctic sea ice, for example. But for aspects of greenhouse-driven global warming that are most relevant to society, uncertainty ? while no reason to relax ? remains deep and durable.

I was happy to see Mr. Obama describe ?an education process that I think is necessary, a discussion, the conversation across the country about, you know, what realistically can we do long term to make sure that this is not something we?re passing on to future generations that?s going to be very expensive and very painful to deal with.?

I hope that takes the form of an energy and climate ?listening tour,? as I proposed early in 2011 ? with the listening aimed at identifying the many points of agreement on energy efficiency and innovation that get lost in fights over global warming. Click through the three slides below to see how the wide differences over carbon policy evaporate when the discussion is about policies that foster thriftier use of energy or non-polluting sources:

It?s data like these that prompted me awhile back to conclude, ?If I had to choose one of two bumper stickers for our car ? CLIMATE CRISIS or ENERGY QUEST ?I?d choose the latter.?

Here?s the relevant portion of the Obama news conference transcript:

Q.

[Mark Landers] Thank you, Mr. President. In his endorsement of you a few weeks ago, Mayor Bloomberg said he was motivated by the belief that you would do more to confront the threat of climate change than your opponent. Tomorrow you?re going up to New York City, where you?re going to, I assume, see people who are still suffering the effects of Hurricane Sandy, which many people say is further evidence of how a warming globe is changing our weather. What specifically do you plan to do in a second term to tackle the issue of climate change? And do you think the political will exists in Washington to pass legislation that could include some kind of a tax on carbon?

A.

You know, as you know, Mark, we can?t attribute any particular weather event to climate change. What we do know is the temperature around the globe is increasing faster than was predicted even 10 years ago. We do know that the Arctic ice cap is melting faster than was predicted even five years ago. We do know that there have been extraordinarily ? there have been an extraordinarily large number of severe weather events here in North America, but also around the globe.

And I am a firm believer that climate change is real, that it is impacted by human behavior and carbon emissions. And as a consequence, I think we?ve got an obligation to future generations to do something about it.
Now, in my first term, we doubled fuel efficiency standards on cars and trucks. That will have an impact. That will a lot of carbon out of the atmosphere. We doubled the production of clean energy, which promises to reduce the utilization of fossil fuels for power generation. And we continue to invest in potential breakthrough technologies that could further remove carbon from our atmosphere.

But we haven?t done as much as we need to. So what I?m going to be doing over the next several weeks, next several months, is having a conversation, a wide-ranging conversation with scientists, engineers and elected officials to find out what can ? what more can we do to make short-term progress in reducing carbons, and then working through an education process that I think is necessary, a discussion, the conversation across the country about, you know, what realistically can we do long term to make sure that this is not something we?re passing on to future generations that?s going to be very expensive and very painful to deal with.

I don?t know what ? what either Democrats or Republicans are prepared to do at this point, because, you know, this is one of those issues that?s not just a partisan issue. I also think there?s ? there are regional differences. There?s no doubt that for us to take on climate change in a serious way would involve making some tough political choices, and you know, understandably, I think the American people right now have been so focused and will continue to be focused on our economy and jobs and growth that, you know, if the message is somehow we?re going to ignore jobs and growth simply to address climate change, I don?t think anybody?s going to go for that.

I won?t go for that.

If, on the other hand, we can shape an agenda that says we can create jobs, advance growth and make a serious dent in climate change and be an international leader, I think that?s something that the American people would support.

So you know, you can expect that you?ll hear more from me in the coming months and years about how we can shape an agenda that garners bipartisan support and helps move this ? moves this agenda forward.

Q.

It sounds like you?re saying, though ? (off mic) ? probably still short of a consensus on some kind of ? (off mic).

A.

I ? that I?m pretty certain of. And look, we?re ? we?re still trying to debate whether we can just make sure that middle-class families don?t get a tax hike. Let?s see if we can resolve that. That should be easy. This one?s hard. But it?s important because, you know, one of the things that we don?t always factor in are the costs involved in these natural disasters. We?d ? we just put them off as ? as something that?s unconnected to our behavior right now, and I think what, based on the evidence, we?re seeing is ? is that what we do now is going to have an impact and a cost down the road if ? if ? if we don?t do something about it.

[* An asterisk indicates a line was added after publication.]

Source: http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/11/15/with-economy-still-trumping-emissions-obama-plans-an-education-push-on-climate/?partner=rss&emc=rss

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