Schwarzenegger Warns of California Suit Against EPA

Last year I wrote an article for my school newspaper when I found out about California's attempt to sue automakers for not creating vehicles with stricter emissions standards. While I thought that it was good that someone was doing something, I didn't think this was a good way to go about it. After all, automakers are supplying our need, and obviously enough demand isn't there to make a change. It just seemed akin to suing McDonald's because kids are fat.

What I thought would make more sense is pressuring for stricter standards for automakers to follow, and finally, California is trying to do this. Schwarzenegger threatened the EPA that the state would sue them if they don't act soon on the state's attempt to regulate greenhouse emissions themselves:

Schwarzenegger's move stems from California's request in 2005 to get a federal Clean Air Act waiver that would allow it to regulate auto emissions more aggressively.

The Republican governor said the state Thursday will send a letter to EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson telling the agency of its plans to file legal action if the EPA does not act on the exemption request within six months.

I think it's a good step that individual states want to make stricter regulations, but this can only be effective if the majority of states follow suit. I don't know what the chances are of this happening without federal laws being put in place.

Britain Proposes Legal Limits on Carbon Emissions

Kind of old news, but awesome news anyway.

Britain on Tuesday became the first country to propose legislation setting binding limits on greenhouse gas emissions as it stepped up its campaign for a new global warming pact to succeed the Kyoto Protocol.

In its draft Climate Change Bill, the government said carbon dioxide emissions had to be cut by at least 60 percent by 2050, set out five-year carbon budgets to reach the target and created an independent monitoring committee to check annual progress.

As long as consequences are severe enough to keep local governments in check, this plan seems like it could work very well. There is debate about whether yearly targets should be put in place, which to me seems like a good idea so that it is easier to make sure that every area is staying on track. More countries need to abandon free-market thinking and create stronger laws against the emission of greenhouse gases. As a whole, we are not responsible enough to do it on our own, to choose environmentally friendly products over others which are normally cheaper, for example - we need guidance and isn't that what governments are supposed to provide?

ENN: Fight Brews Over How to Address Climate Change

Now that it is official -- humans are almost certainly causing the most dramatic climate shift the planet has seen in thousands of years -- it is time to stop arguing and get down to the serious work of solving the problem, right?

This is a good article from ENN (link in title) about what's going on right now with politics about global warming. I really hope our next president is (tons) more forceful about creating laws to lower green house gas emissions and finding other, more eco-friendly sources of fuel, because, honestly, I think this is the biggest problem the global community is facing right now. Everything else can pretty much wait. And a lot of other issues, such as aspects of poverty (if you look at the environmental justice theory, for example), are tied to environmental issues. But Bush believes that a free market economy will regulate everything, and uh, sorry, so far it hasn't. A lot more needs to be done.

Yeah, of course no one wants a drop in our standards of living which is what will probably have to happen if we as a nation become serious about slowing/stopping (is that possible?) global warming, but it's pretty selfish to have the mindeset that I'm not going to change my lifestyle, that I need to have four cars for my family and air conditioning keeping me at 65 degrees all summer -- forget about future generations. But it's also going to be hard for people to change unless there's a massive force around it, I mean, realistically, who wants to be the only one sweating all summer and riding their bike to the grocery store? Being able to pat yourself on the back only gets most people so far. We like following the crowd, so in order to change the mindesets of crowd, laws need to be put in place.