Obama must take leaf out of Nasheed's book

True he is doing a lot to curb global warming, but melting Arctic ice is still unimpressed .

Here's a story of two presidents, Barack Obama of the United States and Mohammad Nasheed of the Maldives.

Both are young and charismatic. Both were elected last fall to replace discredited incumbents (Nasheed's predecessor ruled the island nation for three decades and kept him in a political prison for years). Both have troublesome legislatures (the opposition party controls the chamber in the Maldives).

But on the biggest question the planet faces — if we'll take action in time to slow down global warming — they couldn't be more different. One, Nasheed, is leading the fight. The other is only half in the battle. They both may go to the UN-sponsored climate conference in Copenhagen next month, but Nasheed will be there to say: Seize the moment. And if Obama makes it, he will be there to spin, to say, no doubt elegantly: Chill.

To understand the difference between the two men is to understand much of the politics of global warming as well as the chances for an agreement on climate change — this year or next — significant enough to matter.

In Nasheed's case, geography almost requires him to be outspoken. More than any other leader on Earth, Nasheed has made global warming his rallying cry. He knows, that trying to limit global warming to 2 degrees Celsius and atmospheric levels of carbon dioxide to 450 parts per million (ppm) is no longer a viable goal. As Rajendra Pachauri, the only scientist ever to accept the Nobel Prize for his work on climate, said this month: At 450 ppm, the Maldives and many other islands, as well as larger low-lying countries such as Bangladesh, "will be completely devastated."

So Nasheed has gone to work. Some of his actions have been symbolic: As part of a global day of climate action that I helped organise, he trained his entire cabinet to scuba dive so they could hold an underwater meeting on an endangered coral reef; they signed a resolution to be presented at the Copenhagen summit, demanding that nations take steps to return the atmosphere's carbon level to 350 ppm. And some of his actions have been entirely practical: To show its willingness to lead, the Maldives has committed to being carbon neutral by 2020.

Contrast that with Obama. He too has acted; in fact, he's done more than his three predecessors combined. But doing more than George W. Bush on global warming is like doing more than George Wallace on racial healing. It gives you political cover, but the melting Arctic ice is unimpressed.

So it's not good news that, internationally, Obama's spokesmen have stuck to the 450 ppm/2 degree target, calling it consensus science when it no longer is. And it's not good news domestically that Obama turned climate legislation over to Congress to produce, slotting it behind health care on his list of priorities.

Obama's excuse is that the Senate won't sign tough climate legislation, so there's no use pushing for it. But that's conceding the game without taking a shot — he hasn't done any of the things Nasheed has tried to rally his nation and other nations.

Nasheed gathered leaders of 11 of the most vulnerable nations on Earth at an island near his country's capital. They produced a manifesto calling for a 350 ppm world — which would mean many countries, including the US, will try to follow the Maldives swiftly toward carbon neutrality. If global temperatures rise 2 degrees Celsius, "we would lose the coral reefs. At 2 degrees, we would melt Greenland. At 2 degrees, my country would not survive," Nasheed said. "As a president I cannot accept this. As a person I cannot accept this. I refuse to believe that it is too late and that we cannot do anything about it. Copenhagen is our date with destiny. Let us go there with a better plan."

He got his answer from Obama a few days later at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Singapore. As one of the US spokesmen put it: "There was an assessment by the leaders that it is unrealistic to expect a full, internationally legally binding agreement could be negotiated between now and Copenhagen ..."

This is not just spin, it's pathetic spin. Copenhagen has been on the calendar for years — it's not a surprise that someone sprung on the president.

Obama always gets high marks for his cool, his calm, his lack of drama. His patience. Maybe he should learn a thing or two from Nasheed.

- Bill McKibben is a scholar in residence at Middlebury College and the co-founder of 350.org. He is the author of The End of Nature and the forthcoming Eaarth: Making a Life on a Tough New Planet.