Another December Seventh is upon us, but this is not just any other Dec. 7th.
Surprise attack on the main American fleet at Hawaii resulted from broken faith and secret negotiations. Believing the Russians untrustworthy, President Teddy Roosevelt at the turn of the past century became convinced that Japan should rule the Asian continent just as the United States had taken the American continents as its own. However, this conviction was not the result of open negotiations and broad global consensus, but a behind-closed-doors promise that could not be kept. After all, no one else knew about Theodore Roosevelt’s promise of Asian hegemony to Japan, and many powers including the USA and Britain (then still of some account) continued imperially to vie for control of North Asia, until Japan called the Anglo-American’s bluff in their horrible attack on the base of the Pacific Fleet. Along these lines, for me, the 19th Century Monroe Doctrine puts the subsequent ambitions of Hitler for European hegemony and Hirohito for Asian hegemony into a starkly different context, and subjects America’s recent sole claim to superpower statecraft to harsh questioning.
The climate change negotiations (COP15) opened in Copenhagen today, December 7, 2009.
Will this day ever stand for desperation and treachery, or will transparent, clear negotiations begun this day, mindful of a zero-tolerant nature for climate stability beyond 350 ppm CO2, slow our descent into endless climate violence, human chaos and governmental strain? The world’s approaches to mitigation of and adaptation to climate change are about to be settled. Beginning this December 7, the remaining trajectory of all human history become clear. COP15 is that important.
President Obama’s input to the process was planned to play to his strengths, a speechmaking opportunity to charge the hill of high moral ground on the issue of anthropogenic climate change. Obama’s appearance in Copenhagen has beneficially been delayed to coincide with the more meaningful nitty-gritty of negotiations, rather than today’s perhaps overzealous kickoff session. Last Friday, largely as a result of grass-roots efforts by American climate activists, the President quietly promoted webcast interaction between his cabinet-level advisors and the concerned youth of our nation. I’d like to think it was direct feedback from that national meeting on climate change that led to the announcement this morning that his speech at Copenhagen will be postponed for a week to coincide with the actual negotiations. Friday’s online meeting clearly highlighted Washington’s continuing accommodation of topical debate, which in the case of climate action may have already cost us the world. However, thinking of that infamous December 7th reminds us how important public and transparent dealings become in the course of history. Even if we have to wade through the heartfelt pleadings of 200 sovereign states and hear the objections of powerful staid interests and those who cannot accept that the day has finally come, our world must now turn this day which has lived in infamy into a rough ploughshare that hews straight across undoubtedly rocky terrain toward as much climate stability as is yet possible. Let’s get to it.
