Barack Obama and Osama Bin Laden on Climate Change

In the past two weeks two of the most influential people alive shared their views on climate change, President Barack Obama and Al-Qaida terrorist leader Osama Bin Laden. President Obama was televised live during his State of the Union Speech, whereas Osama Bin Laden broadcasted via unauthenticated audiotape revealed by the Al-Jazeera news network. Although their agendas are entirely opposite, their passion for climate change provide a similar call to action.

Bin Laden on climate change: Osama Bin Laden's audio tape introduces him saying: "This is a message to the whole world about those responsible for climate change and its repercussions - whether intentionally or unintentionally - and about the action we must take." Bin Laden addresses climate change in contrast to some US senators' skepticism: "Speaking about climate change is not a matter of intellectual luxury - the phenomenon is an actual fact." He blames "all the industrious states" for climate change and "yet the majority of those states have signed the Kyoto Protocol and agreed to curb the emission of harmful gases." Singling out US inaction on Kyoto, Bin Laden laments: "George Bush junior, preceded by [the US] congress, dismissed the agreement to placate giant corporations. And they are themselves standing behind speculation, monopoly and soaring living costs" (Al-Jazeera, 2010).

Obama on climate change: Representing a new era, Obama's State of the Union speech emphasized green jobs and their purpose for climate change: "But to create more of these clean-energy jobs, we need more production, more efficiency, more incentives... That means building a new generation of safe, clean nuclear power plants in this country. It means making tough decisions about opening new offshore areas for oil and gas development...It means continued investment in advanced biofuels and clean-coal technologies....And yes, it means passing a comprehensive energy and climate bill with incentives that will finally make clean energy the profitable kind of energy in America... I know there have been questions about whether we can afford such changes in a tough economy; and I know that there are those who disagree with the overwhelming scientific evidence on climate change... But even if you doubt the evidence, providing incentives for energy efficiency and clean energy are the right thing to do for our future because the nation that leads the clean-energy economy will be the nation that leads the global economy. And America must be that nation."

World's apart: geographically, philosophically, and politically and yet still concerned over their shared world. One is a world leader representing freedom, and the other is the leader of the most infamous terrorist group ever known. Both commentaries galvanize the world to action despite overwhelming inertia. Obama makes the plea for renewable energy, even nuclear and fossil fuels. Bin Laden plays a blame game with climate change that may be a ploy to gather recruits against the developed West. Obama and Bin Laden -when these two talk the world listens- the message: act on climate change.