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Jonathan Isham: Yes, we can!
November 5th, 2008 by Jonathan Isham
Yes we can! – That unforgettable call-and-response, heard again last night in Barack Obama’s stunning acceptance speech, echoes today around the world. And I and my fellow climate activists are happy to take all the credit for the President-elect’s use of this phrase.
Well, not really. But I do feel that there is more than karma in the fact that this declaration was also the organizing theme of Ignition: What You Can Do to Fight Global Warming and Spark a Movement. The opening line of Ignition — which features chapters from leading climate activists Bill McKibben, Gus Speth, Mary Lou Finley and many others — is “Can we really win this fight against global warming?” The response comes one paragraph later: “Our answer — and the resounding answer of this book — is Yes, we can.”
OK, maybe Obama and his team didn’t steal our line. But I’m not surprised that leaders of the climate movement and of the Obama campaign have adopted the same language. Consider what they have in common. Both the movement and the campaign are driven by optimism about our future, a realistic assessment of present challenges, and an overarching sense that it is time — it’s time for a mobilized groundswell to rebuild our world, fueled by the energy of the grassroots and the vision of leaders who get it.
Now it would be wrong to say that the climate movement is partisan. As we celebrate in Ignition, both Republicans and Democrats are at the helm: think Schwarzenegger and Gore. But it is right to say that the raw energy and drive of Obama’s team is akin to what drives the climate movement.
Early this morning, I prepared a note of thanks to a dozen friends who, over the last several months, put their life on hold to help Barack Obama win last night: they are dedicated volunteers, fund-raisers, organizers. As I was about to hit the send button, I had an ‘aha!’ moment: so many of these inspiring folks are equally committed to the climate movement (Billy Parish is a great example of this.) And since the skills and tools put to work in the Obama campaign are transferable, last nights’ results are a promising sign for the world’s drive for a clean-energy future. It really is time, and our leaders are ready to go.
So yes, we can! Let’s all pause and savor those words today — and then get back to work.
What do you think? Leave us a comment.
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Jonathan Isham is Luce Professor of International Environmental Economics at Middlebury College in Vermont and co-editor of Ignition: What You Can Do to Fight Global Warming and Spark a Movement. Visit his website.
November 5th, 2008 at 7:48 pm
Obama embodies the intersection of the Yes We Can of his campaign and of the climate/energy/justice movement. The new energy economy will be his top priority.
November 5th, 2008 at 9:39 pm
One finger, one thumb, one arm, one leg, keep moving.
This was community organizing on a national scale. Now that over three million of us are organized, it’s up to us to stay together to expand the movement and to build the ground-up support for the legislative initiatives that will enact the changes we need into law. Learn to participate in the policy-making process. Read Catherine Smith’s book, Writing Public Policy: A Practical Guide to Communicating in the Policy-Making Process.
Find a niche about which you are passionate and get involved.
Yes, WE can.
Mike Palmer
Cornwall, Vermont
November 6th, 2008 at 9:01 am
This is truly historic moment across many dimensions. President Obama embodies the hopes, dreams and aspirations of millions of Americans of every stripe and movement for basic human rights (freedom, civil, climate change, healthcare, jobs).
This moment ushers in a new era of progressive civic and political engagement that will hopefully bring about the change America & the world needs.
Optimism and hope abounds and so does the heavy burden of responsibility. President Obama has shared his vision, drawn up the mission and inspired a nation.
It is now up to all who heeded this call and responded “Yes We Can” to get involved at every level to turn this inspiration into action, dream into reality and message of change into a living testament of sustainable change.
Joseph K.
Maryland
November 6th, 2008 at 9:33 am
I’m over 50, but Tuesday night around midnight, I felt like a teenager, overwhelmed by emotion as my husband and I both listened to Obama’s acceptance speech. i’m not ashamed to say we both wept. I cannot recall ever being so energized by a presidential candidate and so ready to roll up my sleeves and get to work!!
November 6th, 2008 at 10:42 am
This is truly one of the most exciting times in human history! We are faced with opportunities as well as a real and enormous threat. It can be daunting, but we already have so many of the tools that will help us effectively address the climate crisis. We just need to agree to deploy them, get to work, not let up, and never settle for anything but our very best.
I believe we are heading deeper into this period of transformation and significant change, and I remind myself often that revolutions are born of hope.
Yes, we can – and we are!
Sustainably yours,
Billy Connelly
NativeEnergy, Inc
Presenter, The Climate Project
November 6th, 2008 at 10:57 am
Hi Jon,
The slogan “Yes we can” might also come from the common expression in the southwest “Si se puede,” meaning “yes we can” in Spanish. I see this a lot in basic education departments that are getting students through GEDs and into college. Regardless, it’s a great, positive rally cry. Waking up on Nov. 5th to the promise of a new America was my best birthday present ever!
Cheers,
Kate
November 7th, 2008 at 10:29 am
Yes, “Si se puede!” is a true antecedent to Obama’s ‘Yes We Can!’ Deval Patrick also, in his MA governor’s race. The phrase captures the perspective we need to begin to effect meaningful change in the name of social justice.
November 8th, 2008 at 5:32 pm
With the election of Barack Obama, a new day is surely dawning for the family of humanity. We have good reasons to be hopeful. The agonizing throes of the severe and colossal storm we have endured in the past several years have produced an unexpected outcome. The air is being cleansed and the dark clouds that had been gathering on the horizon are being blown away.
Al Gore has reminded all of us that now is the time for intellectual honesty and moral courage as necessary attributes for responding ably to the human-driven global challenges which are looming ominously before humankind. As the horrendous, once in a century storm is being swept away by benevolent winds of change, perhaps we will see that honest and courageous activities of many people will begin to replace cascading, self-interested behavior of a few misguided, greedy people who have been willing to do whatsoever is politically convenient, economically expedient and socially fashionable… come what may for our children.
Perhaps sufficiently reality-oriented changes in policymaking and action planning, changes that protect biodiversity from mass extinction, prevent more wanton environmental degradation and preserve Earth’s body from relentless dissipation as well as the children from endangerment, are in the offing.
Steven Earl Salmony
AWAREness Campaign on The Human Population,
established 2001
http://sustainabilityscience.org/content.html?contentid=1176
November 8th, 2008 at 10:54 pm
I wrote a draft about “A path for Obama and for all” that looks at how to proceed on both the path of sustainability and prosperity in the developing world, and how to jumpstart a paradigm shift in the US. It’s too long to paste in here. I just saw a 1987 article by Hunter Lovins that covers the social methodology really well , Four Steps to Self-Reliance. What we have developed at Design Earth, starting right after the 5th International Symposium on Digital Earth , began with a concept of organizing and tagging useful sustainability information by ecosystem and by culture, as well as the usual taxonomy of types of problems. The beauty of this approach includes that whatever you share gets targeted to the people who can truly use it, in their PLACE, and that it drastically reduces information overload. We would like participation and funding to help make this happen. We also have identified a lot (and invented some) technology for sustainability that can be used widely. We want to collaborate with people like you!
Regards,
Mark Roest, David Alan Foster
April 27th, 2009 at 5:53 pm
I was looking for web references to the source of Obama’s “Yes we can” slogan (Deval Patrick’s campaign is what I was trying to remember) and would just point out that there is a difference (in Spanish) between “si, se puede” and “si, podemos”. The latter means “yes we can” … the former affirms that “yes it is doable”. With respect to energy, se puede. Now, let’s DO IT.