Web Letters: Can America Make a Deal to Save the Planet?

I think this article is great, and love to see "green" articles in the press; though they have taken a while, it is nice to see the surge.

I just wanted to say a little something about accountability. It is awfully convenient to have the Bush administration to take all the blame for the lack of environmental policy in the past eight years, but shouldn't we look at ourselves as well?

It seems to me governments listen when all the people start talking, but environmental discussion was only beginning to rise during our past administration: a time that called for journalists and average citizens to really start making a stink about saving the earth.

Now, I see us waiting again for government to take action, but why does it have to be forced? Shouldn't we all be cutting back our cars, our electric usage, our over-consumptive habits? It seems that the spark of climate change is excess, cheap inebriated love of satiating goods, and it seems to douse that flame would be as easy as instilling a bit of humble pride into every single human being in this nation.

I am just tired of waiting, I make a conscious effort everyday, and yet I know that there are 300 million others in this nation, maybe, hopefully, an eighth of which do the same.

It has been thirty years in the making, this shift to responsible living, and it would be a shame to see us wait any longer for people other than ourselves to fix the problem, especially when those people are so few and so uneducated and we are so many, with the resources to raise our awareness to unknown proportions.

It just takes effort. We can't sit in front of our sets, on the edge of our seats and magically watch emissions fall.

Nicholas Simone

Scottsdale, AZ