By: David Miron-Wapner

A moment many of us have long hoped for has finally dawned – American leadership on climate change. President Obama, with a nod to future generations by emphasizing his role as a father is following through on promises made first in his second inaugural address after the silence on the issue in his re-election campaign.

In announcing bold new initiatives Obama stated clearly “the question now is whether we will have the courage to act before it is too late, and how we answer will have profound impact.”

While it may yet not be too late, we are walking a fine line with our modern comfortable, progressive life-style and civilization in the balance. Warnings have been sounded for many years. Those years have been wasted on failed international negotiations and all government’s failures to assume responsibility for creating a better, more secure climate future. All the while carbon emissions have consistently risen.

Why will it require courage? Simply put, though climate change is by now settled scientific fact, it remains an unseen threat. It challenges all of us to act and behave differently, without being able to fully rely on our past experience as a guide. This is new, uncharted territory. Though many more people are becoming increasingly aware of subtle changes, as Bob Dylan once sang “something is happening here, but you don’t know what it is, do you Mister Jones?”  We are all the generic Mr. Jones, not quite grasping what is going on, let alone how to respond when it seems largely out of our control. The fact is that we are totally in control and completely to blame. We are stuck in a vicious cycle driven by our profligate consumerism and sense of comfort in the conventional ways of the dominant market-driven economy.

Everywhere people are feeling a growing unease over the “reliability” of the weather. Now just past the summer solstice, we at least can count on seasons changing. Or can we? One season seems to blend into the next with little visible change. A few weeks ago I was in Florence and conversations with local’s revealed anxiety over the bizarre spring weather, “not in all my years, have I seen so much rain and cold in early June, then followed by such extreme heat, etc…” The signs are all around us, and we must respond, even if we may not know exactly what it is.

Our response must be a profound challenge to “business as usual” scenarios. We must shift our mindset to perceive the opportunities offered by mitigation of the extent of change and adaptation to a hotter, less hospitable world. We must unleash innovation and creativity, not just for profit, but also in the service of our battle to preserve earth’s natural ability to support life. Even the switch to natural gas which America, like Israel, has recently discovered in abundance presents only a rearguard action from vested economic interests. After all, though less climate polluting than other fossil fuels, particularly coal, gas still releases significant CO₂ emissions, just as the invisible barrier of 400 parts per million in atmospheric CO₂ concentration is passed, an amount not seen on a time-scale well beyond the development of human civilization.

Let us not respond by demanding more air conditioning, but let’s be truly bold, follow Obama’s lead and act as if each day is critical. Time is of the essence.