Thursday, December 10, 2009

Another "Well, duh!" Moment

According to H. Josef Hebert and Dina Cappiello of the Associated Press, "The Obama administration took a major step Monday [Dec. 7] toward imposing the first federal limits on climate-changing pollution from cars, power plants and factories, declaring there was compelling scientific evidence that global warming from man made greenhouse gases endangers Americans' health." [emphasis added]

Really? What a surprise. The effects of pollution endanger our health? Who would have thought?

I read this statement in the Tuesday morning Helena Independent Record and all I could say was, "Well, duh!"

I know there's a lot of controversy (at least among non-scientists) about the efficacy and ramifications of global warming. As far as I'm concerned, they can argue until they're blue in the face. Whether or not they believe that global warming is taking place, or question whether or not it is man made, is not as important to me as the fact that pollution sickens and kills living things. I am interested in these other arguments only to the extent that the constant bickering prevents real progress in cleaning up the air we breathe, the water we drink and the soil in which we grow our food.

My message to the powers that be (lawmakers and corporations) is simply, "Clean up your act by cleaning up the world." Get a clue, people.

1 comment:

Jorja said...

You bring up a very good point. There is lots of controversy about whether or not global warming is taking place. However, there is no argument about pollution being a bad thing. Unfortunately, all this global warming controversy is taking away from the most important point: pollution is bad for our health.