Obama's Moon Shot: Try Climate Change

Candidate Obama in 2008 talked about climate change, but President Obama largely ignored the issue. Now he has another chance, writes David Remnick at the New Yorker, provided he's willing to "step outside the day-to-day tumult of Washington politics and establish a sustained sense of urgency." America owes it to the world to take the lead given that it created much of the problem to begin with, and the window to get substantive fixes in place is closing.

"It will be a colossal task, enlisting science, engineering, technology, regulation, legislation, and persuasion," writes Remnick. Obama should start in his inaugural address from the Capitol. "It was there that John Kennedy initiated a race to the moon—meager stakes compared with the health of the planet we inhabit. " Read the full post here. (More climate change stories.)