Wednesday, July 25, 2007

Global warming can?t wait on Washington for action


For more than six years, President Bush and his anti-environmental yes-men have engaged in unswerving denial about the existence of global warming. Their most fervent disciple, Republican U.S. Sen. James Inofe of Oklahoma, even denounces global warming as a "hoax," despite hard evidence of a planet in distress.

Therefore, states and communities with the most to lose from relentless accumulation of greenhouse gases and damage to earth resources don't dare wait for Washington to change its mind and launch a counterattack on polluted air.

Community and state groups need to come together to devise ways of persuading people to reduce their "carbon footprint" that contributes to the buildup of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.

A "carbon footprint," by way of explanation, is defined as "a measure of the impact human activities have on the environment in terms of the amount of greenhouse gases produced and measured in units of carbon dioxide."

Various organizations have developed carbon calculators for homes and business. The World Resources Institute—(http://www.safeclimate.net/calculator)—has an online test that can be used to measure individual carbon footprints.

Americans are the world's largest contributors of carbon dioxide into the air—some 20 to 30 tons of carbon dioxide per person per year.

At least 40 percent of that is produced by auto emissions and home energy use.

If those two sources can be reduced, the collective result would be an enormous step toward relieving the atmosphere of poisonous gases.

Obviously, no meaningful impact can come from a single community's reforms. But if communities individually demonstrate a willingness to cut emissions, a trend could emerge with more and more communities joining the crusade. That could have a positive cumulative impact on air quality.

Remember the "smoke-outs" when whole communities pledged not to smoke tobacco for a day, a week, a month or a year? That gimmick along with others dramatized the fatal consequences of smoking, provided smokers with an incentive to quit cold turkey, and led to a drop in the percentage of American smokers.

Idaho is a state that has plenty to lose from erratic weather cycles and global warming. Its ski industry would collapse without snow and agriculture would shrivel without adequate winter snow pack to supply water to irrigate farms.

Idaho's influential voices on the environment, agriculture, winter recreation, energy production and industry should jointly develop a public education program and blueprint for family action to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. This effort could inspire other states to eventually combine into a major regional and national movement.

Idahoans and Americans have the will, if they can be shown the way.




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