Obama’s Second Term: The Environment

Next Monday, President Barack Obama will raise his right hand and take the oath of office for a second term. He’ll have another four years to accomplish his national policy agenda. But what exactly should that agenda be? What issues and problems must President Obama focus on? And how much work is left undone from his first term in office?

We’re asking a variety of smart Southern Californians for their opinions and to tell us one goal they believe the President must accomplish in the four years to come.

Today we hear the views of Steven Davis, a professor of earth sciences at the University of California, Irvine. He talks about what the President needs to do to confront the problem of climate change. Davis has an enormous challenge for President Obama: he wants him to start talking about relatively small-scale solutions, like improving federal MPG standards, and start taking drastic actions to wean both the United States and the world off of fossil fuels. If we don’t do that, says Davis, the world will continue to warm and the oceans will rise.