"This is the moment when we must come together to save this planet. Let us resolve that we will not leave our children a world where the oceans rise and famine spreads and terrible storms devastate our lands"
About this Quote
Urgency is doing a lot of work here, and Obama knows it. “This is the moment” isn’t just a call to action; it’s a claim on history, an attempt to freeze a sprawling, technical problem into a single moral crossroads. Climate change, in this framing, becomes less about parts per million and policy tradeoffs and more about the kind of people we choose to be when the stakes are undeniable.
The syntax is built for coalition. “We must come together” sidesteps ideology by treating division itself as the enemy. That’s classic Obama rhetoric: elevate the dispute to a higher plane where the only reasonable position is unity, then invite listeners to recognize themselves inside the “we.” It’s persuasion by inclusion, but it also carries a subtle rebuke: if you resist, you’re opting out of the collective and, by implication, out of responsibility.
The second sentence pivots from present urgency to future judgment. “Let us resolve” is performative politics - a public vow meant to bind not just governments but identities. The imagery escalates in a grim triptych: rising oceans, spreading famine, devastating storms. It’s global (oceans), human (famine), and local (our lands), compressing a planetary crisis into scenes that can be pictured on a nightly news feed. The children line is the emotional keystone: it borrows authority from posterity, turning policy into inheritance. In context, this is presidential climate rhetoric designed to outflank cynicism by making inaction feel not merely shortsighted but indecent.
The syntax is built for coalition. “We must come together” sidesteps ideology by treating division itself as the enemy. That’s classic Obama rhetoric: elevate the dispute to a higher plane where the only reasonable position is unity, then invite listeners to recognize themselves inside the “we.” It’s persuasion by inclusion, but it also carries a subtle rebuke: if you resist, you’re opting out of the collective and, by implication, out of responsibility.
The second sentence pivots from present urgency to future judgment. “Let us resolve” is performative politics - a public vow meant to bind not just governments but identities. The imagery escalates in a grim triptych: rising oceans, spreading famine, devastating storms. It’s global (oceans), human (famine), and local (our lands), compressing a planetary crisis into scenes that can be pictured on a nightly news feed. The children line is the emotional keystone: it borrows authority from posterity, turning policy into inheritance. In context, this is presidential climate rhetoric designed to outflank cynicism by making inaction feel not merely shortsighted but indecent.
Quote Details
| Topic | Nature |
|---|
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