Obama brings message of hope and optimism, asking Calgary to take on climate change
Former U.S. president Barack Obama at the Saddledome in Calgary on Tuesday, March 5, 2019 Photo TINEPUBLIC Greg Paupst
With divisive politics and changing economies stoking fear and anxiety on both sides of the border, former U.S. president Barack Obama brought messages of hope and optimism to Calgary on Tuesday, paving the way to a kinder, gentler and cleaner planet.
The 44th president of the United States sat down with local media celebrity Dave Kelly for A Conversation with Barack Obama at the Saddledome, inviting discourse on a wide range of topics — from his time in the White House to the importance of family, but also challenging Albertans to take on the impending catastrophe of climate change.
Even in a city and province embroiled in a passionate battle to build pipelines and get oil to overseas markets, Obama was blunt in his message that no one is exempt from finding newer and cleaner sources of energy.
“Oil and gas have powered the Industrial Revolution, have powered Canada’s economy, the U.S. economy. And it’s been an extraordinary run,” he said to loud whistles.
“But what is indisputable is that the planet is getting warmer . . . and with the current pace we are on, the scale of tragedy that will consume humanity is something we have not seen in perhaps recorded history unless we do something about it.”
Obama predicted oceans rising several feet, billions of people fleeing coastlines, permafrost melting to release toxic methane gas — even a growing number of moose facing tick-borne diseases they did not have to deal with a decade ago.
“I really like moose. I assume Canadians do, too.”
Obama challenged the city’s engineers and scientists to look for new ways to “turn on the lights and get our cars going” by using the same ingenuity they have used in finding new ways to extract oil.
“You guys can figure it out, but you’ve got to be open to it,” he added, referring to a former chairman of the environment committee in Washington holding up a snowball on the Senate floor and declaring there is no global warming because it’s cold outside.
“You laugh. This happened. That’s not a good way of approaching problems.”
He also warned of a potential refugee crisis, brought on by people fleeing severe weather patterns in countries that are no longer livable.
“Think about what that does to the politics of the world, not just the economics of it, not just the environment.”
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Obama admitted a mixture of increasing globalization and toxic social media has created a certain level of fear and anxiety, and increasing divisions within segments of society.
But he gave hope to younger generations, who simply expect equal rights for women, the LGBTQ community and other minorities.
“A lot of young people are instinctively more open-minded, more tolerant, more sophisticated,” Obama said, adding that his daughters, Malia and Sasha, aged 20 and 17, “cannot imagine the idea of treating someone differently because of their sexual orientation.”
Younger generations, Obama added, “see commonalities between people rather than simply differences.”
But as the planet continues to wrestle with hate, ignorance, the rising “far-right” and even the divisive Brexit vote in Europe, he hopes new generations will counter that narrative.
“These are all expressions of fear and anxiety, fed by changing economies, information flow and demographics.
“But the next generation will be better equipped than the generation currently in power to change that. But it doesn’t automatically happen.”
Former U.S. president Barack Obama at the Saddledome in Calgary on Tuesday, March 5, 2019 Photo TINEPUBLIC Greg Paupst
Ultimately, Obama called on the power of all citizens to organize and mobilize in the face of injustice, recalling a speech he made in 2015 during his presidency marking the 50th anniversary of the Selma to Montgomery, Ala., march led by African-Americans protesting segregation.
“It’s about looking for what is best in all of us.
“Capturing the notion of how students, maids, porters, housewives, decide with nothing but the shirts on their backs, the shoes on their feet, that they are going to upend the social structure of the most powerful country ever.”
Like those activists, Obama said, citizens must recognize within themselves that even if they are not famous or wealthy, they have the ability to make change for the better.
“There is a better avenue and we have all been enlisted in that,” Obama said.
“That is what’s best. That is the shining moment.
“It’s happening around the world. And it’s in us as well.”
