Obama’s Glass

How is Obama’s glass? Half full or half empty? On June 27th, as we know, the U.S. House approved the much awaited “climate bill.” This law introduces the United States to binding limits on CO2 emissions and institutes a “cap and trade” system for the exchange of rights to pollute. It is a very important and much awaited measure that is dividing the environmentalist world (not only the American one).

One side underlines the shift – unimaginable even a year ago when the climate “negationist” George Bush was seated in the White House – and the fact that Washington (if the Senate gives the definitive free path) could claim a place at the table of those who back the desire to spare the world from the worst damage of global warming. The other side, probably the majority, instead point their fingers at the modesty of the objectives set by the law and the excessive pressure that Obama agreed to yield to.

Following, we point out some of the most interesting reflections on the argument. The historic organization, USA World Watch Institute, has some of the most critical concerns. In an online editorial, Michael Renner launches a call to arms to environmentalists that could be synthesized like this: “Enough lobbying, we must return to militancy: the politicians will not be the ones to save the world.”

Li Gao, director of the department of Climate Changes of the National Commission for Chinese reform and development, made comments in an article for China Daily reported by the site Qualenergia. The accusation of the Beijing leader is that the law that was not ambitious enough.

Among those who instead see in the effort of the new U.S. president a “glass that is half full,” is Gianni Silvestrini. In a brief online comment, the director of the Kyoto Club said that he was convinced that “in reality, even though diluted, the measure has a decisive importance both on the internal front and on the international one” because in this moment it was “necessary to direct the machine.”

On the same wavelength is a post by David Roberts, one of the bloggers of Grist.org, the “bible” of U.S. environmentalists. According to Roberts, Obama must have knowingly embedded a compromise on the downturn, convinced that once the mechanism was set in motion, it will be up to the market to do the rest, pushing the real results beyond the initial setup. The blogger synthesizes the thinking of the White House: Let’s put the frame in the right place, let’s go back to make it so that the market will go far beyond expectations, then let’s return to put our hand on the frame in a climate that is politically much more well disposed.

[Editor’s note: some quotes may be worded based on translated material].