The Fierce Urgency of Now

Record voter turnouts in Iowa and New Hampshire. The candidates, republican and democrat alike are speaking the clean energy language. I'm excited. We've never seen a politics like this in our lifetimes, but clearly something is ready to change.

I support Obama. He has a lot to do with the surge of citizenship that we're seeing and I have incredible respect for a well-run campaign that believes in people, that energizes America and responds to what the people want - clean energy legislation. But I'm not going to go work for Obama. I'm not going to get caught up in the excitement too much because the bottom line is that he isn't going to become Al Gore.

Obama is no climate champion, but he is creating the conditions for the success of the movement. The people who work on the Obama campaign are getting a sense of their own power, and they're getting a sense of how to run an organization. The people who volunteer are getting drawn into politics. The buzz means that we can talk politics with people who never would have before. Lets take advantage of our good fortune and press the fight home. We need bad senators out of office and good ones in. We need ambitious state policies. We need to expand our base at the grassroots. We need more people to become excited about the possibilities for change.

Al Gore says that political will is a renewable resource, and that it is non-linear. We're seeing a non-linear progression right now. Things are changing fast. Big organizations and campaigns can't keep up, but little ones can zip right up to the front.