Now that the dust has finally settled on the epic Obama-Clinton duel and the Democrats and Republicans are squaring up for some serious campaigning, what are some of the sustainability policy challenges and opportunities that await would-be Presidents Obama and McCain?

As a Brit living in the US for the past 10 years I have noticed the increasingly unsure state of America, an America where the dominant paradigm, based largely on the intergenerational expectation of cheap gas and food, looks increasingly frail.

I couldn't agree more with Yale's Dan Esty that "there has been a huge sea change in public attitudes on the environment in the last couple of years." Don't get me, nor I suspect Esty wrong. Americans have not had a wonderfully altruistic 'kumbaya' moment of planetary (com)passion where they are lining up to buy Priuses while ceremoniously recycling their Hummers and Chevy Suburbans. No, this is mostly a tipping point borne of reaction, an unwanted jolt of global reality, and with good reason.

Basically, the you-know-what is hitting the fan on all fronts. Gas prices at $4+ and climbing are compounding suburbanite woes by increasing the expense of their commute while simultaneously and directly related, sending their house prices into free fall; food prices are rising across the board in part because of the conversion of grain into fuel for cars; the rising cost of domestic air travel is revealing the stark lack of alternatives like European and Asian-style high speed rail infrastructure in the nation's high density regions (except for the Acela in the Boston-Washington corridor) and many of the extreme weather events such as the south east drought, Hurricane Katrina, wildfires in California and the west and flooding in the Midwest are, despite the protestations of an increasingly alarmed Bush administration, not 'acts of god' but the results of climate change and poor public policy and planning.

Basically the American dream is fast becoming the American nightmare and the problem is that neither presidential candidate is prepared to redefine and dematerialize the dream. Both are saying what the public wants to hear, not what the public needs to hear. Both are talking about 'the issues', but neither is fully linking the issues, joined-up style.

My point is that neither is talking about the bigger joined up picture: sustainability or sustainable development. Maybe Obama wants us to hope for sustainability and hope is a step in the right direction, but is not enough. McCain’s straight talk won’t deliver sustainability either. This being the USA, maybe we should all pray for sustainability?

Professor Julian Agyeman
Department of Urban and Environmental Policy and Planning
Tufts University
Boston, Massachusetts.

Prof. Julian Agyeman will be writing a monthly informal blog for us from the USA