At the “Town Hall” meeting in Strasbourg, France, April 3, 2009,  (Washington Post, LA Times, NY Times, White House.gov, NY Times Video)   President Obama spoke intelligently and well.

He summed up the challenges we face:

We also know that the pollution from cars in Boston or from factories in Beijing are melting the ice caps in the Arctic, and that that will disrupt weather patterns everywhere. The terrorists who struck in London and New York plotted in distant caves and simple apartments much closer to your home. And the reckless speculation of bankers that has now fueled a global economic downturn that’s inflicting pain on workers and families — is happening everywhere, all across the globe.

President Obama also made very strong statements on “Sustainability” and “Globalization.”

… what I want to be able to do is not only fix the immediate crisis, but, working in partnership with other countries, create a path for sustainable, responsible growth. And I think we can do that. There are a lot of people who benefit from globalization, but there are also people who have been harmed by globalization. Globalization in and of itself can be good, but can also be destructive.

Now, we could have just spent the money on the same old ways of doing things. But part of what we decided was if we’re going to be spending a lot of government money anyway, why not spend it to double the amount of renewable energy? Why not spend it on retrofitting existing government buildings so that we drastically reduce their energy consumption?

The energy policy wonks writing on this blog agree with Al Gore that we should move from 50% coal and a large percent nuclear to 100% solar, wind, geothermal, marine kinetic, and other renewable, sustainable energy systems in 10 years.  But President Obama’s stated goal, to double the amount of renewable energy, quickly, is a good start.