"We're not going to be able to burn it all" . . . Barack Obama

The International Energy Agency has determined that, to meet the international goal of limiting earth's temperature rise to 2 degrees Celsius, we will have to leave two thirds of the world's reserves of oil, gas, and coal underground, unburned.   In an interview with New York Times columnist Richard Friedman, President Obama was asked if he agreed with that assessment.

The president acknowledged this, saying "Science is science. . . . "We're not going to be able to burn it all."   He went on to say that, over the next two decades, we are going to have to build a ramp from the way we use energy today to the way we need to be using sustainable forms of energy.

MSNBC's Chris Hayes called this the most radical statement to come out of the White House . . . ever.   And yet the general media hardly noticed.    The importance of this benchmark is that we are going to have to stop the fracking process, which is designed to get those fossil fuel reserves that have been hard to get before.    That is, we are going after those reserves beyond that two-thirds level -- and we have to stop.

Yes, science is science.   But politics is also politics.   There is no way that this current congress is going to pass any kind of regulations that will stop our insatiable demand for more and more oil.    This is the challenge.    The president has brought John Podesta back into his administration to be in charge of the climate change program, which is an indication of Obama's desire to do the right thing.

Some are predicting that in the long reach of history, his presidency will be judged, more than any other issue, on what he did to turn the tide on climate change.   And, even though he has done more than another president in history, scientists are saying that it will be judged as not enough.

It boggles the mind.  How does any thinking, caring human being stare into so many abysses as our president must -- from climate change to the incendiary Middle East;  from financial regulation to Republican obstructionism -- and not just want to give up?

To expend so much effort and so much political capital -- just to get something done that you know is woefully inadequate -- must take a strength that few people possess.  

Ralph