Barack Obama on global warming: Sometimes I feel discouraged

Brut America

“Images of dystopia start creeping into my dreams.”  Here’s what Barack Obama had to say about the climate crisis during his speech at the COP26 summit ...

Transcript

00:00There are times where I feel discouraged.

00:05There are times where the future seems somewhat bleak.

00:08There are times where I am doubtful that humanity can get its act together before it's too late.

00:15And then images of dystopia start creeping into my dreams.

00:21We are nowhere near where we need to be yet.

00:32For starters, despite the progress that Paris represented,

00:36most countries have failed to meet the action plans that they set six years ago.

00:41And the consequences of not moving fast enough are becoming more apparent all the time.

00:46Most nations have failed to be as ambitious as they need to be.

00:52The escalation, the ratcheting up of ambition that we anticipated in Paris six years ago

00:57has not been uniformly realized.

01:02I have to confess, it was particularly discouraging to see the leaders of two of the world's largest emitters,

01:08China and Russia, decline to even attend the proceedings.

01:13Our international plans so far reflect what appears to be a dangerous lack of urgency,

01:19a willingness to maintain the status quo on the part of those governments.

01:24And that's a shame.

01:25We need advanced economies like the U.S. and Europe leading on this issue.

01:32But you know the facts.

01:33We also need China and India leading on this issue.

01:37We need Russia leading on this issue,

01:39we need Indonesia and South Africa and Brazil leading on this issue.

01:43We can't afford anybody on the sidelines.

01:57Back in the United States, of course, some of our progress stalled

02:01when my successor decided to unilaterally pull out of the Paris agreement in his first year in office.

02:08I wasn't real happy about that.

02:14And yet, the determination of our state and local governments,

02:20along with the regulations and investment that my administration had already put in place,

02:26allowed our country to keep moving forward, despite hostility from the White House.

02:31In the U.S. alone, more than three million people now work in clean energy-related jobs.

02:36That is more than the number of people currently employed by the entire fossil fuel industry.

02:41So despite four years of active hostility toward climate science,

02:46coming from the very top of our federal government,

02:50the American people managed to still meet our original commitment under the Paris agreement.

03:01And not only that, but the rest of the world stayed in the deal.

03:06And now, with President Biden and his administration rejoining the agreement,

03:12the U.S. government is once again engaged and prepared to take a leadership role.

03:17As I'm sure is true for all of you out there,

03:21those of you who are steeped in this work, who are far more expert than me,

03:27there are times where I feel discouraged.

03:31There are times where the future seems somewhat bleak.

03:38There are times where I am doubtful that humanity can get its act together before it's too late.

03:45And then images of dystopia start creeping into my dreams.

03:51And yet, whenever I feel such despondency,

03:56I remind myself that cynicism is the recourse of cowards.

04:02We can't afford hopelessness.

04:07Instead, we are going to have to muster the will and the passion and the activism of citizens

04:13pushing governments, companies and everyone else to meet this challenge.

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