Dear President Obama --
I'm glad you're meeting all the bigwig leaders around the world and all, and the kids look cute as hell and seem to be having one heckuva summer vacation to write about in school this fall -- but let's get down to brass tacks.
We need your considerable charm, charisma and oratory skils to explain the state of the Earth's climate to all Americans (and the rest of the world that is listening).
Love Al Gore, but IMHO he has failed. You cannot.
To me, it's real simple. You need to take Americans through the most obvious and shocking climate change evidence like JFK showed photos of missile launchers during the Cuban missile crisis.
You only need three exhibits to make the case, too:
Exhibit A
The 2005 letter from the world's top academies of science stating that global climate change is real, is man-made and is a threat to civilization.
Heck, you can probably round up all the directors of these academies into the Oval Office during your speech and they could each say that they are betting the reputations of themselves, their organizations and that of all their members (essentially the top scientists in the world) of the fact of global warming and the absolute urgency required to deal with it.
Exhibit B
Show the American people the map of the Arctic I recently received in my monthly National Geographic. It shows the retreat of Arctic sea ice from satellite images in dramatic relief. The 1980 minimal sea ice extant (as far as the ice retreated that summer) show it barely moving out past the land masses of the continents that surround the Arctic Circle. It is roughly the size of the continental U.S. The 2007 line shows how at one point the ice shrunk to enter the area of the North Pole. 2008 was a little better than 2007 but was still about half of 1980's -- essentially summer ice once the expanse of the continental U.S. now shrinks to a point past the Mississippi River.
Exhibit C
A 2006 study of Arctic ice cores pinpointed the last time there was no sea ice at the top of our world -- 55 million years ago. Because of greenhouse gases from volcanoes then, the world was 23 degrees warmer on average and the Arctic was tropical.
I don't know about you, but fitting the entire world's population up at the North Pole ain't my idea of a good time.
Modern humans only came to rise as a species some 40,000 years ago. In other words, home sapiens have only known a world with Arctic ice. I don't think we can afford to find out what a world without it will be like.
You get the point. You must do this, Mr. President. You've shown you're sane, rational and personally courageous. Now you have to show you're politically courageous.
We know you have a thing for the historic President Lincoln and his impact on the world. You have the opportunity to have the greatest impact on the world in human history -- to save it from ourselves.
IMHO,at the very least we owe our children and children's children the opportunity to live on this Earth. To deny all those future generations their chance to live is a crime that no generation should commit.
Now, go and make history, Mr. President. Treat the American people like adults and tell them the truth. I know the vast majority will listen.