Why I make environmental action personal…

…partly because news items like these make me worry that making it governmental will be too long in coming.

From Dana Milbank’s “As the World Warms, The White House Aspires,” commenting on the President’s new global warming (so-called) initiative in the Washington Post on June 1:

“…the plan the White House outlined yesterday listed no concrete targets or dates, no enforcement mechanism and no penalties for noncompliance. It also wouldn't take effect until four years after Bush leaves office. It was, rather, a call to spend the final 18 months of the Bush presidency forming an aspirational goal."

Meanwhile, if you were wondering how the rest of the world is thinking of the new “plan”:

Bush kills off hopes for G8 climate change plan - The Guardian

Bush sidesteps G8’s climate change agenda - The Independent

(Thanks go to Climate Progress for all this)

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From Grist, by Ken Ward:

“Public opinion polls show a significant increase in the number of Americans who support strong climate action. Deeper digging shows this support is superficial, too thin to drive the rapid sociopolitical change now required…”

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According to The Independent’s Geoffrey Lean:

“Global warming is accelerating three times more quickly than feared, a series of startling, authoritative studies has revealed.

“They have found that emissions of carbon dioxide have been rising at thrice the rate in the 1990s. The Arctic ice cap is melting three times as fast - and the seas are rising twice as rapidly - as had been predicted.” 

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Photo above (courtesy scienceblogs.com) included because another reason for my making environmental action personal is that I like polar bears.

This post also appears in my green parenting column for Time Out Kids New York, appearing every Wednesday. For resources on eco-friendly stores and restaurants, or simply to plan a weekend outing, visit them at tonykids.com.