Greenpeace

It's been more than a year since the "new" congressional majority was elected in this country - since the Democrats, who were supposed to change the disastrous path our federal government is following, took over both the House and the Senate.  One year since the 2006 elections, and I can still remember the renewed hope that seemed to take hold of so many activists after that election.  It seemed, to the environmental movement, to the peace movement, as if real change might be about to occur.

In the past year, however, those hopes have crumbled.  The new Congress has yet to do anything substantial about global warming - despite the overwhelming need to take serious action in the next few years.  Right now, major environmental groups like the Sierra Club are fighting a desperate battle just to get some basic anti-fossil fuel provisions into this year's Energy Bill.  The goal is to ensure that the bill will raise average fuel economy standards for vehicles to 35 mpg, and assures that 15% of US electricity comes from renewable energy - both by the year 2020.  In light of the fact that we have until 2015 to stabilize global greenhouse emissions, these small steps seem fairly pathetic.  Yet it is not at all clear that the final Energy Bill will include even those - I personally will be rather surprised if both the increased fuel economy standards and the renewable energy standard become law.  We'll find out very soon, for the final vote is supposed to occur in the next few days.  I can't emphasize enough though, that even if both provisions make it into the final bill, they will not be sufficient to save us from catastrophic climate change.  The federal government is failing us; if we depend on it to get us out of the fossil fuel mess, we do so at our own peril. 

I can't help but wonder if the tremendous effort being spent trying to whip the federal government into shape wouldn't be better directed toward making change in other places.  I don't know; what do you do in a country where urgent action is needed NOW to prevent disaster, but where the effectiveness of the federal government is crumbling?  It's imperative that we focus our energies in the places where they'll be most effective - but it's hard to know where that is.  All I can say is, get out there and do something.  Make your local government stand up to fossil fuels; stop a coal plant from being built, anything.  It's up to us - the ordinary people - to get ourselves out of this mess.  The federal government is not going to do it for us.

PLEASE SIGN THE PETITION TO THE WASHINGTON COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS, ASKING THEM TO COMMIT TO A GREENHOUSE EMISSIONS-REDUCTION PLAN!

-Nick