On the Green Road Again:

America and the American Congress are again considering legislation that would bring America more in step with the world and world opinion. And once again there are folks that are opposed to our cooperation with the rest of the human beings that inhabit this planet with America. Once again the opposition is coming from the conservative right in American politics.

The world is watching and while the world watches the Republican Party of America raised objections to limiting the amount of greenhouse gasses America emits. America is tied with China for total carbon dioxide emitted annually. China’s per capita emissions are far lower than America. This severs to emphasize how bad a polluter America is. Fully 20% of the of the carbon dioxide emitted into the atmosphere is coming from America. And sad to say the state of Texas is amongst the worst offenders.

What makes these events even more painful is that I feel these are not political decisions but rather moral decisions. The last time the American congress had such a clear cut moral mandate was in December of 1941 when the congress declared war on Japan and hours later on Germany. This was not a political decision but rather a moral decision. The crisis with the damage that is being done to the climate of the earth has in fact made these decisions moral in nature. For what we do now will affect all the generations that come after us.

I do not wish to put the American economy under any more stress than it currently is, however the generation of carbon dioxide simply must be significantly reduced. That may mean for the next 5 winters the citizens of America must keep their houses no warmer than 50 degrees with snow on the ground. That may mean we Americans restrict our driving to 25% of the current miles driven. That may mean that houses in Texas cannot be cooled below 85 degrees in the summer months. In fact it may require that we do all of these things and more.

Just as we did in the Second World War we must not count the cost but rather we must shoulder the burden such that there is a habitable planet for our children and grandchildren to live on. The window of opportunity is closing and the chance for a favorable outcome is diminished with every passing day in which we do nothing. This is too important to be left solely to the corporations and traditional decision makers. Widespread participation must happen for the outcome to be favorable. If you never again become an active participant in global events I strongly urge that you become involved in this struggle. The outcome affects us all each and every one of us. Let us all do our part to keep the earth a green livable home for the race of man.

I shudder to think of America once again opposing these changes based on our own self interest. If we ignore this problem we will pass the point of no return. After that no amount of change will fix what will happen. The earth will of course continue to orbit the sun. It will be a different planet and the dominate species on that planet will not be mankind. At that point we can only wish them well and hope that they do not repeat the mistakes made by the race of man. Perhaps their anthropologists can study the errors we made and by doing so avoid the pit we fell into.