Over the past week, I've found myself mulling over the results of the Waxman-Markey bill. Yes, I'm happy it passed, if only by a hair. I find it interesting how much the bill has changed from when it was first proposed in committee to when it was put on the House floor and finally, the form it has taken now that it has been passed.

 

The reason I'm not happy is because of all the concessions and alterations that have taken place. Many of the compromises were made to help farmers, and while I want easier living for everyone, I don't want it to be at the eventual cost of life or fallouts with other nations. The bill in its current state is a five percent emission reduction from 1990, while Europe wants a 30 percent reduction from wealthy countries. For several developing countries such as China and India, the policies they make now will affect the world more than what the US does. However, so long as the U.S. won't cut emissions sufficiently, other nations are losing interest in following the example of the Europeans.

 

On a lighter note, one can see that there are attempts being made in the direction of altering our emission policies, however slight and incremental they might be. The U.S. is starting to look at environmental issues with an eye not so clouded by fear and willful ignorance. The problem being that we are barely crawling in the right direction when we need to take strides. However, the bill will be entering the Senate; hopefully they will be tougher on cutting emissions.