Bolivarian President Hugo Chávez was really original when he spoke of the "enigma of the two Obamas."
Today the serious Obama spoke. Not long ago, I acknowledged two positive aspects of his conduct: the attempt to bring healthcare to the 47 million Americans who lack it and his concern over climate change.
What I stated yesterday on the imminent threat hanging over the human species could seem pessimistic, but it is not at a remove from reality. Now the opinion of many heads of state on the ignored and forgotten issue of climate change is to be made known.
Obama was the first to announce his opinion as the host country of the UN high-level meeting on that issue.
What did he say? I shall transcribe the essential words of his address:

"…the threat from climate change is serious, it is urgent, and it is growing…"
"Our generation's response to this challenge will be judged by history…"
No nation, however large or small, wealthy or poor, can escape the impact of climate change.
Rising sea levels threaten every coastline. More powerful storms and floods threaten every continent."
"And we have put climate at the top of our diplomatic agenda… China and Brazil; India and Mexico; from the continent of Africa to the continent of Europe."
"Taken together, these steps represent a historic recognition."
"We understand the gravity of the climate threat. We are determined to act."
"…we did not come here to celebrate progress today."
"We came because there's so much more work to be done."
"It is work that will not be easy."
"…there should be no illusions that the hardest part of our journey is in front of us."
"We seek sweeping but necessary change in the midst of a global recession, where every nation's most immediate priority is reviving their economy."
"…all of us will face doubts and difficulties…to reach a lasting solution to the climate challenge."
"…difficulty is no excuse for complacency. Unease is no excuse for inaction."
"Each of us must do what we can when we can to grow our economies without endangering our planet."
"We must seize the opportunity to make Copenhagen a significant step forward in the global fight against climate change."
"We also cannot allow the old divisions that have characterized the climate debate for so many years to block our progress."
"Yes, the developed nations that caused much of the damage to our climate over the last century still have a responsibility to lead…"
"We cannot meet this challenge unless all the largest emitters… act together."
"These nations [the poorest and most vulnerable] do not have the same resources to combat climate change."
"Their future is no longer a choice between a growing economy and a cleaner planet, because their survival depends on both."
"And that is why we have a responsibility to provide the financial and technical assistance needed to help these nations."
"We seek an agreement that will allow all nations to grow and raise living standards without endangering the planet."
"We know that our planet's future depends on a global commitment."
"But the journey is long and the journey is hard. And we don't have much time left to make that journey."
The problem now is that everything he is affirming is in contradiction with what the United States has been doing for 150 years, and particularly since, toward the end of World War II, it imposed the Bretton Woods Agreement on the world and became the master of the world economy.
The hundreds of military bases installed in dozens of countries on all the continents, its aircraft carriers and its naval fleets, its thousands of nuclear weapons, its wars of conquest, its military-industrial complex and its arms trading are incompatible with the idea of the survival of our species. Consumer societies and the squandering of material resources are likewise incompatible with ideas of economic growth and a clean planet. The unlimited waste of non-renewable natural resources, particularly oil and gas, accumulated over hundreds of millions of years and which will be exhausted within barely two centuries at the current rate of consumption, have been the fundamental causes of climate change. Even if contaminating gases are reduced in the industrialized countries, which would be praiseworthy, it is no less certain that 5.200 billion inhabitants of the planet Earth are living in countries still to be developed to a greater or lesser degree, which are going to be demanding a huge consumption of coal, oil, natural gas and other non-renewable resources which, in line with consumer patterns created by the capitalist economy, are incompatible with the objective of saving the human species.
It would not be fair to blame the serious Obama of the aforementioned enigma for what has occurred to date, but it is far less just that the other Obama should make us believe that humanity can be preserved under the regulations currently prevailing in the world economy.
The president of the United States admitted that the developed nations have caused much of the damage and must assume responsibility for that. It was doubtless a brave gesture.
It would also be just to recognize that no other president of the United States would have had the courage to say what he said.