Yeah, It Really Is That Bad

I just came across this article detailing the fact that global emissions have increased. What's worse, they have increased more than scientists' worst-case-scenario projections for how emissions would affect continued global warming. It has globally gotten worse, despite the weak economies in most of the world. While it is true that China and India may be emitting more because of productive economies, they are also taking steps to turn to cleaner, more "atmosphere-friendly" forms of energy. On the other hand, it is quite possible that the western world's hobbling economies have caused them to become lax in their regulation of greenhouse gases.

In fact, that makes the most sense, especially here in the U.S. We are quite preoccupied with our bad economy, as we should be. However, some politicians have made it their by word that environmental regulation is bad for the economy and have pushed to loosen those rules that already exist. In addition, with massive layoffs in the government job sector in our nation, and in others, because of budget cuts, it is quite likely we don't have the needed workforce to make sure companies are complying with regulations. What we have got ourselves into is a mess indeed.

The most striking quote to me in the article was this:

"The more we talk about the need to control emissions, the more they are growing," said John Reilly, co-director of MIT's Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change.

Mr. Reilly is correct. We need to actually do something, not just talk about doing it, if we should do it, how to do it, etc., etc. There have been ideas suggested by the leading scientists who have worked with politicians who recognize we can and must make a change. They just need to be put into place. We need to get the attention of our elected officials and tell them to stop pussyfooting and actually implement these ideas. The time for action is now. If we are already emitting beyond "worst-case" estimates, we are in dire trouble indeed. It's time that we Occupy Earth and demand immediate change from environmentally harmful practices to friendly ones. We shouldn't expect any less, and our future generations surely won't.