Heated Debate

As expected, the meetings in Copenhagen have amounted to mostly talk and little action. While Europe has taken some steps to pledge financing to developing countries for taking a low-carbon growth strategy - far more than the United States has been willing to front - the prospects for agreement are no more firm than before the meetings began last week.

But perhaps what is lacking is a proper frame for the issue. Public acceptance of the existence of climate change is a moot point; the very existence of a world meeting on reducing carbon dioxide and other greenhouse-gas emissions signals it. But defining the issue as specifically one of temperature change, rather than as a broader dilemma of environmental conservation and biodiversity, is what is keeping the eco movement from achieving its full potential.

The 350 campaign and others have succeeded in putting carbon dioxide emissions in the public consciousness. Even the average person can understand CO2 emissions create a greenhouse effect, rising temperatures and effects ranging from subtle changes in seasons to outright climate catastrophes. The simplification of climate change has enabled a mass movement.

But this gives leaders an easy escape. Emission of greenhouse gases such as CO2 or CH4 (methane) can be tied directly to industrial or agricultural production, energy consumption or cows breaking wind. Therefore, this makes trade and protectionism the arena for debate; and the recent round of WTO talks has shown that this is where leaders from both developed and developing countries can drag their feet and blame the other side. But if environmentalists can successfully implant in the public's mind that it is not only climate change (temperature changes), but also environmental degradation, mass-extinction of species, turning our oceans and parks into oil wells and mines, and utter waste (does your mobile phone charger really need to come with 3 pounds of packaging?), they can successfully re-frame the issue into one of broader importance.

I'll conclude with one example. As a student of international affairs, I have many classmates who profess a devotion to saving the environment. Copenhagen must come up with positive results, they say. Yet, I can't even begin to count how many times I visit a sandwich shop frequented by many such students and see how wasteful our society can be.

When a customer buys a sandwich, the woman at the register puts it in a plastic bag. Not long after eating the meal, many of these students discard the perfectly pristine plastic bag - destined for a landfill after being useful for literally 7 minutes (the time it takes to walk the sandwich over to a place to sit, take it out of the bag, and eat it). Multiply that by the hundreds of students who visit this one sandwich shop in New York City.

The amount of waste is astounding, and it seems to me, at least, that few link waste and climate change as one issue about protecting the environment and reducing our consumption. Saving the environment is not just about maintaining a temperature.

The Lame Congress

When looking at President Barack Obama's tanglings with the Democratic leadership on Capitol Hill, one can start to see some virtue in Obama's predecessor's desire to consolidate executive branch power, even when he had a Congressional majority for much of his 8 years in office.

Congress just gets in the way.

The so-called "genius" of American democracy is the so-called well-functioning legislative branch. Unlike many traditional Parliamentary systems such as that of the Brits, however, the United States has a powerful lower house AND upper house. In time of political and economic struggle, this body of legislators has proven itself increasingly beholden to special interests.

Two of the most significant legislative breakthroughs in the current generation - health care reform and a commitment to greenhouse gas emissions reductions - are on the horizon. The Copenhagen meetings are moving ahead this week and health reform is in the United States Senate will a more-than-50-percent chance of passage.

On both accounts, however, President Obama is dramatically weakened by a gridlocked, polarized Congress. Right-wing Republicans, fearful of losing their party base in midterms next year, are holding ground on their "conservative" values of small government ($700 billion bank bailouts) and personal responsibility ($700 billion bank bailouts). Meanwhile, Democrats are doing more to hurt their own chances with a weak leadership at the helm (Pelosi and Reid).

The result is depressing. The Democrats have dropped the public option - the primary innovation in health reform - from the negotiations, and Obama will arrive in Copenhagen empty-handed and with only an argument that his Congress won't change the status quo no matter how much the United States is to blame for climate change.

President Obama has barely been in an office for about 11 months. While his potential for achievement is great, his Congress will likely have more to say about that.