Ispectrum Magazine Ispectrum Magazine #05 | Page 37

M.K. : In comparison to China, how do you rate the activities of the United States of America regarding climate issues? President Barack Obama Prof. Dr. von Weizsäcker I think that President Obama’s ambitions are dichotomous. The top priority was to overcome the scandal of the northern American health insurance situation: one quarter of the Americans has no health insurance. This 25% are simply dying if they are deadly sick, because they can’t afford medical treatment. So he considered the overcoming of that scandal a higher priority than combating climate change. The biggest problem is that the US-Senate, the American congress and the House of Representatives has been utterly conserva- tive for many decades, ed. Sadly Obama gave maybe since the Reagan up on his environmental years, so hardly any ambitions in the end. progress can be expect36