Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass, perhaps the United States’ best literary work and almost certainly its most optimistic, reads a bit like a eulogy in October of 2020, commemorating a nation that’s ceasing to exist. While the country Whitman praises for unfurling itself into its manifest destiny was actually far from perfect, the idealist spirit he captured was unquestionably real.
We are now learning that a deeply flawed United States striving for a beautiful ideal was still much better than a country with no ideals at all.
Whitman described the United States as “Earth’s modern wonder,” a country where other nations gather “beneath thy banner Freedom.” In Trump’s America, such notions sound quaint.
The United States has not been stripped of its global leadership position, but willfully abdicated it. Nowhere is this more evident that in the fight to protect humanity from the perils of climate change. You would expect the supposed international leader to take charge in dealing with humanity’s first truly global issue. Instead, the United States — with billionaires counting on fossil fuel industries and a population that largely scoffs at scientific consensus — has become a major impediment to international cooperation.
But there’s still time to change. We can still lead, and we can still serve as an example to other nations in the climate fight. This is most clear when we look at the situation in Brazil.
The Amazon Rainforest is uniquely important to the health of the planet. The 2.1 million square miles of rainforest most of which are in Brazil, play an instrumental role in producing oxygen and sinking carbon, both of which mitigate the effects of industrial pollution and decrease global warming.
Brazil’s President Bolsonaro, a no-nonsense leader who proudly styles himself after Trump, has slashed environmental protections and encouraged further economic exploitation of the Amazon. The results have been as devastating as they were predictable. While the Amazon’s fires were major international news last year, they’ve actually been even worse in 2020. This nauseating trend shows no signs of abatement.
Bolsonaro and his supporters insist that the Amazon is their territory to be dealt with as they choose. And, in a sense, they’re right. European powers telling a developing nation how to use their resources has more than a whiff of imperialism, and even if the intentions are good the resistance is understandable.
But the issue at hand is more complicated. The natural processes underlying global warming have no respect for national borders. What happens in any one country affects what happens in all the others. A vibrant Amazon is crucial to the wellbeing of the planet and the future of humanity. It’s on all of us to save it.
But how? No country can force Bolsonaro or Brazil to do anything, but they can prod, cajole, and lead by example, insisting that every nation, Brazil included, works toward a sustainable future.
The United States, still the eminent global superpower, is the country best suited to push Bolsonaro and other leaders to do the right thing. But in order for that to happen, the U.S. needs to take the issue seriously and resume its leadership position.
This is yet another reason why the coming presidential election is so important. When scoffing at the dangers of the coronavirus pandemic or ignoring climate change, President Trump invites Bolsonaro and other like-minded leaders to join in his irresponsible behavior. The United States used to be a country that pushed ideals on the world. Under the current administration, it only encourages other nations to replicate its shortcomings.
If elected, Joe Biden would reunite the U.S. with the reasonable nations that understand the stakes of the current climate catastrophe. He would also push Bolsonaro and other renegade leaders to join the fight, building the type of board coalition necessary to defeat this mortal, non-discriminating enemy.
It might sound dramatic, but the future of the planet really does depend on the electoral defeat (and subsequent removal) of President Trump.
