Obama Goes Quiet on Climate Change

When Obama held a press conference after the Nov. 2 midterm congressional elections -- which will boost the number of Republican climate-change deniers in the House and Senate -- he did not mention climate change. This week, as the Cancun conference was kicking off, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs didn't refer to it once during the three press briefings he held. (I intended to ask him about it at one of these briefings, but he ended the Q&A before I had the chance.)
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Back in Washington, Obama is consumed by battles over the Bush tax cuts, "Don't ask, don't tell," the START treaty, and other important matters as he tries to figure out how to convince voters he can address the nation's unemployment crisis. But the world is still burning, just as he said in 2007. And there is no fierce urgency of now. Obama won't be attending Cancun, nor will the heads of state of the other major players. We can hope that the thousands of delegates who are there trying to achieve some measure of progress -- however insufficient -- do find time to hit the beach, while the beach is still there.