Road to Copenhagen: Audacious Leadership vs. Nattering Nabobs of Negativism

Change your thoughts and you change your world.
—Norman Vincent Peale

We are only just beginning to scratch the surface of the power of a positive vision of an abundant future …
—Rob Hopkins, “The Transition Handbook”

During his 10 months in office, President Barack Obama and his team have assembled a respectable list of accomplishments on energy and climate policy. One might conclude the president has done about all he can do with the powers of his office.

One would be wrong. What energy and climate security require — what the future of the American Dream demands — is audacious big-picture ideas that capture the imagination, stir the emotions, speak to the souls, rally the support and win the involvement of the American people. That’s been lacking so far in the President’s climate leadership.

I don’t see evidence that the American people have reached a “yes, we can” moment on climate action. My bet is that most people are still asking “yes we can what?”

President Obama speaks of a “new energy economy”, but that’s an abstraction for many of us. Unless you’re a policy wonk, the climate debate probably is mumbo-jumbo, all about carbon pricing, cap-and-trade architecture and auction allowances. This is not the rhetoric that ignites a mass movement.

I suspect there is a sizeable segment of the American people waiting to be engaged, waiting to have their imaginations triggered, waiting to understand what a new energy economy looks like and what they can do to build it. I’m not saying that citizens can’t act without top-down leadership. Indeed, as President Obama hinted recently in his “Grab a Mop” speech, there’s fundamental unfairness, guaranteed stasis and more than a little buck-passing when we citizens stand on the sidelines, some expecting the White House to do everything, others protesting it is doing far too much.

In regard to reducing greenhouse gas emissions, each of us is capable of grabbing a mop and mopping. It’s as easy as turning off the lights. But there is tremendous motivation in knowing that we’re part of a mop uprising, a society-wide mopping mission, with a common understanding of why we’re mopping. Dedication to visions and common causes is what got us through World War II, landed us on the moon, secured the legal rights of women and minorities, and built the interstate highway system.

The leader who first steps forward to communicate a clear vision of a sustainable world and who stirs us to act as a nation – he or she will be a leader for the ages. That’s because the climate challenge isn’t just about the weather. It’s about a fundamental reordering of our species’ relationship with nature. It’s about ending an epoch of mankind as megalomaniac. It’s about accepting our dependence on natural systems and other countries.

If interdependence sounds like Gaia-speak, then think of the swine flu pandemic, the global recession, food riots and climate change itself. It really should not take islands disappearing under the sea to convince us that no man is an island.

If we must fight a war of ideas to win support for sustainable human society, then so be it. Unless America has lost its soul, that war would be no contest.

On one side is the army of hope, fighting for a future that is more secure, moral and genuinely prosperous, where resource conflicts and extreme poverty are distant memories.

On the other side is the Army of No, the foot soldiers of a “no-can-do” society, the paid purveyors of fear, the scalp-hunters and character assassins, rumor mongers, professional dividers and the false prophets of a “business as usual” world that no longer is possible. They use scare words like Hitler, socialism and taxes. They tell us that in a low-carbon society our showers will go cold, our beer will go warm, our jobs will disappear, and our energy bills will bankrupt us.