The U.S. Peace Corps marked its 50th anniversary in late September with festivities all across the nation’s capital. Former employees like Bill Moyers and Chris Matthews hosted elegant parties as the storied agency took a celebratory bow.

And with good reason. Founded by John F. Kennedy in the idealistic sixties, the Peace Corps has lived on to send more than 200,000 Americans overseas to help feed, clothe, and better educate the poorest of the poor in 139 countries.

But as a former Peace Corps volunteer myself, having lived in a mud-hut village for two years in the Congo, I find it hard to celebrate right now. That’s because our current charismatic and youthful president – Barack Obama – is threatening to undo much of the good work achieved by the Peace Corps over the past half century.

It’s not widely appreciated, but here’s the undeniable fact: Energy policies embraced by the Obama White House are bringing direct harm to every poor village on the face of the planet, from the highlands of Papua New Guinea to the rainforests of South America to the arid plains of Obama’s own ancestral Kenya. And the biggest threat of all is yet to come. It’s an international “tar sands oil pipeline” from Canada to America which, if approved by the Obama Administration, will affect all nations, but especially the impoverished of the world.

The problem is global warming. Scientists say extreme weather patterns are already unfolding worldwide as a result of rising greenhouse gas emissions. You think Vermont got hit hard by Irene flooding? The nation of Colombia got its entire annual rainfall budget in one month earlier this year, displacing or otherwise harming more than three million people. You think Texas is dry? The Horn of Africa is in its worst drought in at least 60 years, with over 10 million people facing starvation. All of these events fit the trend of anomalous, destructive weather patterns that scientists say are becoming more common as our planet warms.

Fossil fuel use worldwide is the main driver of global warming, studies show. And here America is king. We emit 15 times more carbon pollution per capita than the people of Guatemala. Fifty times more than Laos. And 175 times more than the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where I was a Peace Corps Volunteer. And it’s not just our big economy to blame. We emit twice as much carbon pollution per capita as the Europeans and Japanese.
Clearly we can do better, especially when viable clean-energy alternatives abound and countries like Denmark already get nearly a quarter of their electricity from wind power. Clearly we must do better when, already, the World Health Organization says 150,000 people die annually from weather extremes linked to climate change.

This is, fundamentally, a moral question. America’s energy policies are affecting rainfall patterns over Asian rice fields right now, and affecting wildfires among Amazonian hunters and gatherers. It’s a question of right versus wrong.

In 1961, JFK formed the Peace Corps as part of America’s moral response to unacceptable poverty levels worldwide. But now, as our biggest moral crisis switches to climate change, President Obama has failed to rise to Kennedy’s vision. Even as Kenya itself sees 25 percent of its northern population malnourished due to the appalling drought, Obama has failed to act. He showed weak leadership in 2009 on the unsuccessful cap-and-trade legislation; he showed weaker leadership in climate treaty talks in Copenhagen; and – just last week – Obama’s EPA announced it would delay implementing greenhouse gas regulations already sanctioned by the Supreme Court itself.

Yes, the administration has devoted much of the economic stimulus package to clean energy development; and, yes, Obama has pushed Detroit to commit to higher fuel efficiency standards. But none of this will matter if Obama goes forward with the queen of all carbon nightmares: the proposed Keystone XL “tar sands pipeline” from Alberta, Canada to Texas.

This $1.7 billion pipeline would bring to America the dirtiest petroleum fuel known to man, committing us to another generation of dirty automobile use. Worse, if the Canadian tar sands fields are fully developed, it will mean “game over status for the climate,” according to America’s top climate scientist, Dr. James Hansen. It’s an unthinkable outcome for the world’s rich and poor.

In 1961, against all odds, with a skeptical Congress and an uncertain public, JFK also committed our country to a “moon shot” program to place a human being on the lunar surface in less than 10 years. It transformed America.

Obama must do the same today. To stabilize our life-giving climate, to enhance our national security and boost our economy, the President must commit right now to a clean energy “moon shot” program. Within ten years, we must get all our electricity from clean sources like wind and solar, enough to power our cars and our homes. It won’t be easy. We’ll have to engineer some bold solutions along the way. But it’s completely doable.

And the first step for Obama should be this: reject the tar sands pipeline. On the 50th anniversary of Peace Corps, he should use his exclusive presidential power to say no to this international threat to humankind and say yes to a new approach to international peace and prosperity based on clean, renewable, and – yes – ethical energy.

That’s the best birthday present the Peace Corps could hope for.

Learn more about efforts to stop the tar sands pipeline at www.tarsandsaction.org.

Mike Tidwell is the author The Ponds of Kalambayi: A Peace Corps Memoir. He is also director of the Chesapeake Climate Action Network. He can be reached at mikewtidwell@gmail.com.