(Article changed on January 21, 2013 at 17:13)
By Dave Lindorff
There were no memorable lines in President Obama's second inaugural address. Certainly nothing like Franklin Roosevelt's "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself," which was in his first inaugural, or like John F. Kennedy's "Ask not what your country can do for you -- ask what you can do for your country."
But there was plenty he said that was troubling.
The problem mostly wasn't what he said. It was how he said it, and what he left unsaid.
Take climate change.
The president acknowledged the problem, saying: " We will respond to the threat of climate change, knowing that the failure to do so would betray our children and future generations."
So far so good, but then he didn't talk about any serious steps to do that, such as shutting down coal-fired generating plants and putting a stop to plans to import dirty, massively polluting and inefficient oil from Canadian and US tar-sands deposits. Instead he focussed on economic opportunities to be had if the US would start investing seriously in new energy technology. He did not take this unique opportunity to tell Americans honestly what the risks of inaction are: The extinction of half the species on the earth, including primary food sources that keep billions of us alive, and the risk of runaway warming that could raise the oceans by 16 to 60 feet. Instead he focussed parochially on storms and droughts and forest fires getting worse. This was a wasted leadership moment if there ever was one.
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