Opinion Forum

President Obama Has to Go (to Rio+20)

April 22nd, 2012

Ban Ki-moon says His presence is crucial. He cannot lightly reject this command of the entire World.

The United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20) will be held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on June 20-22. It follows the important Rio+20 unsustainable deterioration conference held earlier this year which shaped its agenda. United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has urged President Obama to attend, labeling it “crucial.” For President Obama to reject his wise and mandatory urgings would disgrace the United States and enrage the entire free and unfree world. It could be political suicide. Even worse, it would sadly discourage all of the world’s indigenous peoples, even now huddled together in abject solidarity awaiting Him.

[O]rganizations, social movements, Indigenous Peoples’ organizations and others are mobilizing for Rio+20–not just to demand real action to address the roots of these crises, but to hold an alternative summit where people can start coming up with the real solutions on their own. This approach is critical since it is clear that many corporate controlled governments are heavily invested in business-as-usual and have no intention of doing anything but spooning out some greenwashed PR nonsense in the form of the so-called “green economy,” or as some are calling it, the “greed economy.”

President Obama must meet with them urgently in Rio and drink deeply of their ancient wisdom, spirituality and grace. Sadly, His Administration may reject these compelling calls. It was

indicated in a conference call with reporters earlier this week that Obama was inclined to pass on Rio and would not be joining more than 120 other world leaders at the summit.

Carlos Pascual, the state department’s energy envoy, who was also at the forum on Friday, gave no indication Obama would attend.

However, there is hope that Obama will support Ban’s energy agenda – even if he does not make it to the summit. Ban is pushing the international community to work for universal access to electricity and double use of renewable energy by 2030. Some 1.3 billion people currently have no access to electricity, which traps them in poverty.

Even beyond the disappointment and upset that would fester throughout the entire civilized world and elsewhere were President Obama to ignore the entreaties of Ban Ki-moon and others, there are additional no less compelling reasons why He must overcome His humble reluctance to take center stage and go. While only five reasons are listed below, there are many more.

Why President Obama must go:

1. President Obama and his family desperately need ~~yet another~~ a vacation from the privations of the White House and Rio is the ideal spot. A world class resort, incredible amenities await to help Him along the path to recovery from his sadly deprived life as a young adult. Then, He had

“…to walk the streets of some of our cities’ poorest neighborhoods because he’s lived there.” Yea, even as a humble street walker, He was able to survive in that parched food desert and meekly “take a subway or a bus just to find a fresh piece of fruit in a grocery store.”

No expense will be spared in helping Him to move on from His impoverished past; we owe Him that and far more simply as token gestures of our appreciation for all that he has done to for us. One word of caution: to avoid debilitating flashbacks to his sadly deprived younger days, He must avoid the largest trash dump in Latin America. Conveniently located in a Rio suburb, it provides wholesome and environmentally sound employment for approximately twelve hundred Brazilian scavengers. Fortunately, it is likely to have been closed before He arrives.

2. Secretary Clinton will accompany Him to ensure that He hews to the straight and narrow and does nothing embarrassing to take the spotlight away from First Lady Obama (FOB).

3. He will impress everyone from foreign lands, just as He did at the Summit of the Americas in Cartagena. Once again, His immense international stature, His miraculous abilities as a global ~~community organizing~~ social engineering savant and His God-like universal insights will be received with unrivaled enthusiasm and praise. Just as it has urged the reelection of Venezuelan el Presidente Chávez, the Communist Party of Brazil may even support His reelection. Surely, that will put Him well over the top if he is not already there. Even should that treasured endorsement not be forthcoming, the enhancement of His international stature alone will guarantee that He will garner much needed additional funding for His reelection campaign. Gaia, her oceans that have already bowed to Him by ceasing their rise and indeed the whole universe need President Obama for at least another four years.

4. Although the plans for climate change summit achievements are modest, President Obama will be in a position to claim full credit:

The upcoming United Nations environmental conference on sustainable development will consider a breathtaking array of carbon taxes, transfers of trillions of dollars from wealthy countries to poor ones, and new spending programs to guarantee that populations around the world are protected from the effects of the very programs the world organization wants to implement, according to stunning U.N. documents examined by Fox News.

The main goal of the much-touted, Rio + 20 United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, scheduled to be held in Brazil from June 20-23, and which Obama Administration officials have supported, is to make dramatic and enormously expensive changes in the way that the world does nearly everything—or, as one of the documents puts it, “a fundamental shift in the way we think and act.”

Among the proposals on how the “challenges can and must be addressed,” according to U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon:

–More than $2.1 trillion a year in wealth transfers from rich countries to poorer ones, in the name of fostering “green infrastructure,” “climate adaptation” and other “green economy” measures.

–New carbon taxes for industrialized countries that could cost about $250 billion a year, or 0.6 percent of Gross Domestic Product, by 2020. Other environmental taxes are mentioned, but not specified.

–Further unspecified price hikes that extend beyond fossil fuels to anything derived from agriculture, fisheries, forestry, or other kinds of land and water use, all of which would be radically reorganized. These cost changes would “contribute to a more level playing field between established, ‘brown’ technologies and newer, greener ones.”

– Major global social spending programs, including a “social protection floor” and “social safety nets” for the world’s most vulnerable social groups for reasons of “equity.”

–Even more social benefits for those displaced by the green economy revolution—including those put out of work in undesirable fossil fuel industries. The benefits, called “investments,” would include “access to nutritious food, health services, education, training and retraining, and unemployment benefits.”

–A guarantee that if those sweeping benefits weren’t enough, more would be granted. As one of the U.N. documents puts it: “Any adverse effects of changes in prices of goods and services vital to the welfare of vulnerable groups must be compensated for and new livelihood opportunities provided.”

Indisputably, even these humble accomplishments would guarantee his reelection even were it in doubt — which of course it is not and never shall be. They will also put to rest any absurd charges that He forced the Senate’s persistent refusal to approve a budget. The reasons it did so can finally be revealed: it needed to delay until He had committed us to all ~~expenditures~~ investments and ~~taxes~~ revenue enhancements necessary and proper in order to implement the Rio+20 initiatives, unlikely to be fully known until shortly after His reelection. To enact a budget without full knowledge of the details of those investments and of their costs — and thereby over-budgeting for them — would have been fiscally irresponsible, which the Senate is not, never has been and never can be. After the election, the Senate will be happy to consider His proposed budget.

5. It will give Him even more bona fides as ~~a socialist~~ an environmentally decisive international organizer and hence prepare Him for His life as a former president.

Please comment to suggest additional important reasons for President Obama to go. He is doubtless kept well informed about the state of the Blog-sphere and will surely notice and appreciate all suggestions.

(This article was also posted at Dan Miller’s Blog.)

Articles written by Dan Miller
Tags: energy, fairness, re-distribution, re-election, Rio+20, satire, socialism, UN
Categories: News, Politics | Comments (1) | Home

One Response to “President Obama Has to Go (to Rio+20)”

Lev | April 29th, 2012 at 10:54 am

Yes President Obama must go because under Obama’s watch there are 24 million people out of work according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, part of the Department of Labor. This is 5.2 million less people working than when Obama took office again according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Obama promised if his stimulus package was passed that unemployment would be at 8% and by 2012 unemployment would by 6%. Unemployment is not 6% or 8% now it is higher at 8.2%. Also because gas prices are high and Obama is not doing anything to bring the price of gas down.