God trusted us to care for environment, Obama says

DES MOINES -- Climate change is not just a scientific or an environmental issue, says Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama. It is an issue of morals and of faith.

Men and women of faith have always waded into issues that impact society in profound ways: prison reform, temperance, abolition, women's rights, Obama reminded the group crowded into the public library on a rainy Sunday in Iowa's capital.

Climate change should also become one of those moral imperatives.

Obama was speaking the day after former Vice President Al Gore received a Nobel Prize for his efforts to promote awareness of the dangers of climate change.

"When God created the Earth he entrusted us to take responsibility to take care of that Earth," Obama says, and we are not living up to our responsibility to ensure our children's future.

Fierce storms, raging forest fires and periods of drought are increasing and shrinking "polar ice caps are melting faster than anyone could have predicted," Obama says, noting that this will lead to hunger and an increase in illnesses such as asthma. Already one-third of children's asthma is caused by air pollution, he notes.

Drought is dislocating people around the world, he says, and 250 million could be forced from their homes by 2050.

"We cannot afford to let another year go by without taking bold action on climate change because the politics are too hard and too risky," Obama claimed. "I don't believe climate change is just a convenient issue to bring up in a campaign. It is one of the greatest challenges" that not only America, but the world, faces.

Obama says if he is elected president he will reach out to leaders of the biggest carbon-emitting nations to develop a new global energy carbon forum. Global protocols would be established through the forum.

"As we develop new forms of energy we will share our technology and innovations with other countries in the world," he said.

Meeting the threats of global change will not happen easily or overnight, he warned. It is a challenge that will take time and sacrifice.

Obama has a plan that would reduce carbon emissions by 80 percent by 2050.

He would require polluters pay for pollution they create. "No business will be allowed to emit any greenhouse gases for free," he says.

And an Obama administration would invest $150 billion over 10 years in clean, renewable energy with the goal to make the country 50 percent more energy efficient by 2030.

In answer to a question about China, which has become a huge polluter, Obama said that we cannot expect the Chinese to make sacrifices and "bear the costs when we are just profligate and wasteful." We have to set an example. "That's why it's important for America to lead," he concluded.