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The Obama Presidency…A Potential Ecological Paradigm

Perhaps we are getting over the “messianic” phase of  the immediate, post-election era.  It is becoming very clear that President-elect Obama will be as pragmatic as he will be change-oriented. We’ll thankfully see a whole new attitude on environmental matters–that will not be difficult to accomplish!–but his administration will not be the font of all environmental solutions.   

That said, Obama is a transformational figure in US and world politics.  His integration of empowerment, leadership, and diversity is a formula for necessary and potential change, the likes of which we have not seen for very many years.  The environment is one of three or four main pillars in his practical vision to restructure American society and the economy. More than just “fixing the parts”, he recognizes that human success – actually, its very existence – emanates from an environmental paradigm, and that only by working within essential ecological realities can we construct a truly sustainable, prosperous, and healthy human society.

His election comes at the back end of an era of just the opposite. The US is now ending 8 years of one of the most environmentally illiterate and politically insensitive American national administrations in history.  At a time when the world was actively looking for leadership in critical environmental matters, upon which our health and economy depend,  the US was not providing leadership and was, in fact, acting against the environmental interests of the world – -in climate change, toxic regulation, energy consumption, consumerism, and more.   That pattern of policy and practice is indisputable, is a matter of public record and, thankfully, is now over.

What can we expect, environmentally, under an Obama administration?  While we all know that the rhetoric of campaigning is generally different from the rhetoric of governing, thus far I’ve been impressed when comparing his words and actions since the election victory.  His announcements within the first four weeks of winning the election have been remarkably consistent with his pronouncements during the campaign.  From all the accounts I’ve received from personal and professional contacts close to his campaign, he implicitly understands that a new industrial, social, and energy frontier is ahead of us, one based on new policies, new jobs, and new revenues emanating from non-petroleum-based, sustainable forms of energy, and a society that respects, protects and sustains its foundation of wild nature.  This will not happen overnight, and there will be political and corporate resistance to such a radical shift in thought and action.

This does not mean that I agree with all of Obama’s ideas and plans. For example his embrace of (a limited amount of) nuclear energy may appear to be part of a “balanced energy policy,” but ignores fundamental economic and environmental realities. I view similarly his early (and now diminished) support of corn-based ethanol.

We all await his choice for Secretary of Interior. Numerous names have been circulated, including Raul Grijalva (HR, Arizona), Mike Thompson (HR, California), Kevin Grover (Director, Smithsonian Museum of American Indian) and John Berry (Former Asst. Secretary of the Interior and Smithosian National Zoo Director). They are all strong advocates for more wilderness.  And there are also numerous things that could be done in the near term to make a difference for US wilderness – - such as to counter the Bush Administration movements against National Forest Roadless Areas, and also to pressure Congress to act on many BLM Wilderness Study Areas (WSAs) that have been stalled there for ages.  The transition team that is interviewing staff and assessing  issues at Interior are receiving good marks from career staff…they even expressed interest in DOIs developing role in WILD9, the 9th World Wilderness Congress (Mexico, November, 2009)

More interesting to me is looking beyond the direct actions that will occur in the environmental sector, to assess how “ecological thinking” will bring other, indirect, yet potentially widespread changes. In a “big picture” analysis, I see three essential characteristics of an Obama-style leadership – collaboration, conservation, and adaptation -that are based on ecological principles and that can be transferred effectively to social, economic, governance, and environmental policy:

• Conservation -Following the 9-11 attacks and the freeze in the US economy, President George W Bush told Americans to “go shopping” in order to support and defend America. President-elect Obama has told people there is no ultimate success without sacrifice, and that change in conditions requires change in behavior. That is not only adult advice, it is based on how nature works…anything out of proportion will ultimately perish.
• Collaboration – Obama is a collaborator, which is an essential ecological practice. Nature may appear to be a contest of the strong vs weak, but that is simply one aspect of a more complex reality. Ecology actually operates on more encompassing principles, such as everything adding its part to the greater ecosystem, of nothing being wasted, etc. In local terms, how do the best human neighborhoods succeed?…through cooperative, shared endeavor, with many different inputs creating stability, protection, and prosperity.
• Adaptation – We live in an imperfect world at a transitional moment, where change is required if the economy is to recover and restructure sustainably, and human society is to be healthy and prosperous. Therefore, in my opinion, the most impressive aspect of Obama’s fledgling leadership is his apparent ability to listen, synthesize information and differing opinions, and make course corrections as he proceeds. This is self-reflective leadership based on pragmatic, intelligent values rather than on ideology and politics. It is an essential aspect of ecology, too – success in nature depends on adaptation. The values aspect of this, however, is the singular human contribution to the greater good — the well-being of our society and the natural world of which we are stewards is based on something other than self-serving ideology or fundamentalism of any sort.

There is no guarantee of success. However, I am enthused about the in-coming Obama administration. Despite the significant obstacles of attitude, self-interest, and infrastructure that lie ahead, I believe we can expect significant changes in environmental policy and practice. Moreover, I think we can also expect  systemic changes in policies that shape and regulate the economy, business and social conditions, and governance, changes based on ecological principles inherent within the wild nature that has birthed and maintained the human race for 3 million years.

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