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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsPresident Obama Shirtfronts Tony Abbott, Asks Young Australians to Step Up and Take Action on Climat
http://junkee.com/president-obama-shirtfronts-tony-abbott-asks-young-australians-to-step-up-and-take-action-on-climate-change/45314#LS1MiLPlQA4pfk1e.99You know when your dads been away for a while and he lays into you about not taking the rubbish out while he was gone? He says hes not mad, just a little disappointed, then goes into an inspiring speech about how we all have to do our part around the house. Thats essentially what just happened to our entire country. President Obama has only been in Australia for a matter of hours and hes already incited people to take action on climate change.
...his speech spanned the gargantuan topics of foreign policy, social discrimination, international diplomacy and of course, climate change, he kicked things off with some jokes.
Regardless, it took the President just 20 minutes to get to the topic on everyones minds: climate change. And when he did, the entire room broke into applause. Here in the Asia Pacific, nobody has more at stake when it comes to thinking about and then acting on climate change, he said. Here in Australia, it means longer droughts, more wildfires The incredible natural glory of the Great Barrier Reef is threatened.
After acknowledging that there has been some healthy debate on the topic in our country, he stated that leaders must be held accountable. Combating climate change cannot be the work of governments alone, he said. You have to keep raising your voices, because you deserve to live your lives in a world that is cleaner and that is healthier and that is sustainable Thats not going to happen unless you are heard.
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Except, no, it didnt even stop there. He then went on to talk about broader issues of social inequality, religious freedom and human rights. Well stand up for our gay and lesbian fellow citizens because they need to be treated equally under the law, he said. Well stand up for the rights and futures of our wives and daughters because I believe that the best measure of whether a nation is going to be successful is whether they are tapping the talents of their women and treating them as full participants in politics and society and the economy.
Stunned to be in the presence of a politician who had a semblance of a coherent idea and a general sense of moral decency, the entire audience rose to their feet in rapturous applause and convulsive fits of pleasure. Obama was then whisked away to the official start of the G20 Summit like a goddamned rock star.
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Spazito
(50,365 posts)I absolutely love that he, along with other European leaders, overrode climate change deniers, Abbott and Harper, and have a substantive statement on climate change included in the final communique:
"The G20 communique will include a significant passage on climate change, EU officials said on Sunday, as the United States and other heavyweight nations override host Australia's attempts to keep the issue off the formal agenda."
http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/g20-summit-u-s-eu-override-australia-to-put-climate-change-on-agenda-1.2836741
freshwest
(53,661 posts)They had to go there with the petty comments. But the piece still spoke for many in these paragraphs:
He then announced he was going to contribute $3 billion to the Green Climate Fund to help developing nations deal with climate change, dropped the mike and moonwalked off the stage.
Stunned to be in the presence of a politician who had a semblance of a coherent idea and a general sense of moral decency, the entire audience rose to their feet in rapturous applause and convulsive fits of pleasure. Obama was then whisked away to the official start of the G20 Summit like a goddamned rock star.
Proving the human race is not doomed after all. Thanks, ashling.
I loved that last paragraph
ReRe
(10,597 posts)Number23
(24,544 posts)but the interest in this speech has been THROUGH THE ROOF. I've had about 20 people RUN to me about this just since it happened.
You would think Aussies would be pissed that a leader of another country basically told them to ignore their own government and pursue climate change and social issues even though their own leaders won't. But people are giving the president serious props for what he did and saying that Obama is far more popular than Tony Abbott anyway.
Cha
(297,317 posts)loved his Environmental speech in Brisbane!
"You would think Aussies would be pissed that a leader of another country basically told them to ignore their own government and pursue climate change and social issues even though their own leaders won't. But people are giving the president serious props for what he did and saying that Obama is far more popular than Tony Abbott anyway."
That's what the Tweets denoted..
http://www.democraticunderground.com/110226804
proverbialwisdom
(4,959 posts)November 16, 2014
Obama Puts Australia's Climate-Denying Prime Minister on the Spot
G-20 host Tony Abbott just had an awkward weekend
By Rebecca Leber
Climate change was maybe the last thing Australia Prime Minister Tony Abbott wanted to focus on at this weekend's G-20 summit with the world's largest economies. As the host of the G-20 talks, Abbott wanted to discuss only "economic security" and "private-sector led growth," and refused to include climate change in that conversation in the formal agenda. This was expected behavior for Abbott, a leader with an abysmal record on climate change and who helped repeal Australia's carbon tax.
In the end, he didn't have much of a choiceclimate change became a focus in informal and formal discussion. President Barack Obama made sure of that.
At the Brisbane summit on Saturday, Obama addressed Australia's reluctance to tackle this issue head-on. While Australia's emissions are a small fraction of the United States', the two countries are also first and second, respectively, among western nations in carbon pollution per person. In Obama's words, neither have "been the most energy-efficient of nations." Repeating his call from a United Nations summit in September, Obama said "every nation has a responsibility to act." And "whether you are a developed country, a developing country, or somewhere in betweenyouve got to be able to overcome old divides, look squarely at the science, and reach a strong global climate agreement next year." Unlike his speech in September, Obama had a more persuasive case this time, because the U.S. and China just demonstrated it is possible.
Obama Is Driving a Wedge Between the World's Two Most Powerful Climate Change Deniers
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This doesn't mean Abbott has any intention to change Australia's position as an outlier on climate change action. In a discussion on energy, Abbott assured leaders he is "standing up for coal." Even so, he faces pressure domestically from Australians who don't share this view. Ahead of the summit, more than 400 protesters buried their heads in the sand in protest of the governments refusal to address climate change:
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https://twitter.com/350Australia/status/532829512321355776/photo/1
350Australia @350Australia
Aussies put heads in sand on G20 eve. @TonyAbbottMHR get your head out of the sand
on climate: http://bit.ly/1uf4Ppp
1:37 AM - 13 Nov 2014