NEWS | Wednesday, 21 January 2009

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Four years to ‘save the world’

America is a remarkable country in many respects: not least the speed with which it appears to revise its opinions. A mere four years ago, its people re-elected George W. Bush with a substantially increased majority. Today, the same Bush is so unpopular that Republican candidate John McCain felt he had to publicly distance himself from the former President during the 2008 election campaign.
Likewise, it was not all that long ago that one would have been laughed at for even suggesting the idea of an Afro-American as President of the United States. Today it is a reality, and this alone is testimony to the truly remarkable political and social revolution America has undergone in our own lifetimes.
Yesterday’s US presidential inauguration was therefore a historic occasion on a number of counts. Not only did it mark the election to the White House of the first-ever black candidate; but it also marked an end to eight years of America under George Bush – a president who will be remembered largely for taking his country to war on the flimsiest of pretexts, as well as presiding over the collapse of the world economy, and doggedly dismissing all scientific evidence of an imminent global catastrophe.
At a glance these three issues may appear unrelated; but on a certain level they coalesce to form the bedrock of a political and economic outlook which has proved so ruinous for America and the world.
By disregarding any pre-war intelligence that did not add up to a justification of the proposed Iraq invasion, the Bush administration undermined its country’s cherished standing as ‘a beacon of freedom and democracy’ in the world. In fact, the process by which America invaded Iraq in 2003 can itself be taken as a blueprint for disaster in political, environmental and economic management. For it was on the same principle that Bush also ignored his leading scientific advisors on the need to reduce carbon emissions and combat climate change. He then went on to similarly disregard the early warnings of an impending financial meltdown – most significantly, the Enron scandal – with far-reaching and devastating consequences for the global economy.
To be fair, some might argue that as president of the United States, Bush was not himself the architect of the global credit crunch. Nonetheless, financial deregulation was widely encouraged under his tenure of office, providing fertile ground for the current unfolding crisis to take root.
All three policy failures now combine to form a badge of identity for the “Bush legacy”. And placed in this context, it is hardly surprising that Barack Obama would sail into office yesterday buffeted by a healthy 73% national approval rating – 13% higher than Bush when first elected in 2000.
The affable mixed-race senator from Illinois correctly identified the root causes of America’s malaise, and succeeded in embodying – with what measure of truth remains to be seen – his nation’s profound thirst for change. Not just an overhaul of existing policies, but more specifically a radical transformation in national attitude towards all three areas of immediate crisis: the global economy, climate change and the rapidly diminishing prospects of world peace.
For much the same reason, Obama’s entire electoral platform centred on three major policy planks: a restructuring of the US economy, a revision of energy policy – which is crucial both in the fight against global warming, and also to reduce dependence on Middle Eastern oil – and above all a concerted effort to heal America’s broken image as a force for good in the world.
As time wears on, there is no doubt that Barack Obama’s pre-electoral rhetoric of change will be reassessed in the light of his successes or failures in precisely these departments. And already the task appears more daunting than it did a few weeks ago.
Since then, the world has been sobered by chilling scenes of violence and misery emanating from Gaza; the global economy has shown no sign of recovery, while just this week scientists have unearthed new and disquieting evidence of an all-but inevitable environmental disaster, with disappearing Arctic ice-sheets, and the discovery that Australia’s coral reefs are slowly dying because of CO2 absorption by the sea.
More dramatically still, Nasa climate expert James Hansen issued the following, stark warning to the newly installed US President: Obama has a maximum of four years to “save the world” from the effects of global warming.
“We have to get on a new path within this new administration. We have only four years left for Obama to set an example to the rest of the world. America must take the lead.”
Now that the fanfare and festivity of Obama’s inauguration is over, America’s new president will no doubt find he has a lot of serious work to do.

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