President-elect Obama just managed to outsmart the folks at 350.org
As you know by now there has been a huge campaign to encourage Obama to go to Poland, to re-engage the United States in the forthcoming UN Climate talks.
He just found his own way to do this, without getting on a plane.
Speaking to a gathering of world leader (via low-carbon) video, Obama said that as George Bush was the president, he would be prevented from going to the talks next month. But as an internet-savvy president to be, he had clearly heard the call of nearly 50,000 invitations from all corners of the globe .
Here’s a passage from Obama’s video statement:
“ Let me also say a special word to the delegates from around the world who will gather in Poland next month: your work is vital to the planet. While I won’t be the president at the time of your meeting and while the United States has only one president at a time, I’ve asked members of Congress who are attending the conference as observers to report back to me on what they learn there. And once I take office, you can be sure that the United States will once again engage vigorously in these negotiations, and help lead the world towards a new era of global cooperation on climate change”.
The above words must put joy into anyone’s heart and delight for Obama’s pioneering fossil-fuel free ways to communicate with the rest of the world.
Why is it that Obama’s statement is so vitally important? Let us remind ourselves that for eight years the United States has been blocking genuine progress on an international climate deal. Now, right in the middle of the worst economic crisis in years and a thousand other items on his agenda, President-elect Obama took the time to make a special statement committing the US to positive engagement in the upcoming negotiations. His commitment has to be seen as a huge breakthrough to all countries around the world.
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