Green House Gasses Declared Pollution by EPA

Let me just repeat the title of this post, Green House Gasses declared Pollution Today the Environment Protection Agency in the US has listed Carbon Dioxide as pollution and harmful to human health.

I genuinely wish I could find something witty to say about this, but I am still in shock at the hand-break turn of the American government. While it was obvious that there would be a change in US policy and that science would be taken seriously by the new administration, the speed of this change is remarkable. Even though the previous administration was lead by the vested interests of the oil companies and the sloth of the car companies, it was incredible that the science could be ignored. Not only that but subverted and the science of Climate Change censored.

Even though many of the oil companies were originally American, and were result of the break up of Standard Oil, it really did look as though the oil companies were hell bent on damaging the American economy and destroying the planet to boot. To use an analogy; Even the tobacco companies while trying to dismiss the health risks of smoking, stopped their own executives from smoking. Yet the oil companies worked so hard to obstruct any real research into alternatives.

Not that Britain is really that much better, while our government has recognised the problem and the danger, we have adopted a policy of doing something, but only when its really to late. As exemplified by the announcement this week that there will be up to five thousand pounds ($8000) subsidy for people buying electric cars. But not until 2011, so two more years of pollution until then, then.

Mind you I can not see how they can get people to buy more cars unless they make trains really expensive, buses unreliable, cycling impossible... Oh that's what they are doing!

I realise its all to easy to be cynical, especially with our government, but I am glad that the US is taking action finally. All we need in the UK is a government that takes action rather than talks about taking action.