As a believer in climate change and keen observer of the world around me, it’s easy for me to conclude that we are not taking care of our planet. Instead of taking care of our planet, we squander our natural resources and pollute almost relentlessly. As a result, there will be costly consequences. However, should President Bush’s inaction on climate change carry over into the Obama Administration, since Bush’s policies have squandered our economy and the credibility of our country, therefore leaving us financially and morally bankrupt? We found political will and money (arguably that we don’t have) for the recent and questionable gigantic financial bailout, so why can’t we find the political will to fight environmental degradation?  Furthermore, should the United States do nothing just because large-scale polluters such as China—a nation lacking political will to tackle climate change—continue to spoil the environment by relying too much on dirty energy sources?

I believe Obama is serious about change, so he will have some type of climate change policy. Certainly, his energy policy could translate into action on climate change, even if his energy policy wasn’t specifically tagged as a climate change initiative. Furthermore, although China relies on coal power, “Beijing takes the threat of global warming seriously and will work with other countries on a new climate change treaty, but insisted developed countries should take the lead.” If the United States becomes a leader in climate change and clean energy policy, along with the European Union and Australia, then the policy and technology blueprints and infrastructure we develop will allow developing countries such as China and India in addition to many others, to follow our lead. The big problem is that the United States has been lacking leadership for the last eight years. As a result, the world has been lacking leadership, and only now have we gained real leadership, so we should use it! Here is a discussion on the issue from Bloggingheads.tv:

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