The People v the Bush Non-Policy

President Bush has finally, in all of his wisdom, accepted the thought that perhaps, just perhaps, man is in some small way responsible for global warming. Mr. Bush actually made the shocking revelation at the G8 meeting in Scotland today.
But Mr. Bush didn't even get close to endorsing the Kyoto Protocols on limiting greenhouse gases released into our atmosphere, instead Mr. Bush says the world should be looking at moving into the post Kyoto era. In Bushspeak one wonders if there is any definition at all as to what that actually means.
Mr. Bush's environmental philosophy is based on insuring in his words "that we don't wreck the American economy" after all he believes, if we were to clean up pollution that would cost jobs.
Doctors and nurses might not be in such high demand because of the reductions in cancers caused by toxins in our air. Funeral directors may too find their customer base declining. Then there would be coffin makers, florists and the manufacturers of hearses that would be feeling the squeeze.
The President continues to pay lip service our energy crisis. Not once in the nearly five years he's been in office have I ever heard the word conservation pass his lips.
He talks about drilling for oil in the Arctic, he talks about conversion to hydrogen, he talks about nuclear but never does he suggest that we as Americans try and use less.
If Mr. Bush won't suggest it and use the bully pulpit to get us to move off our keesters then why don't we create a grass roots movement and do it ourselves.
What if we could reduce the importation of oil by ten per cent if each of us did our part to conserve?
What if we were to each make an effort to turn off a few lights in our homes that we really don't need to have on? What if we replaced our outside lighting with motion detector lighting? What if we didn't leave TV's burning when we're not watching them? What if we were to take a few less car trips to the store or the mall and instead combine those trips into one and get all the shopping done at once? How about if we didn't leave our cars running just to keep them cool in the summer heat when we're outside the vehicle talking to a neighbor or waiting for someone?
How about if we began to truly push our legislators to build comfortable, accessible light rail systems and new subways so we could leave our cars at home?
What if we didn't air condition our homes quite so much in the summer or heat them so much in the winter, just a degree or two, would we really be so uncomfortable?
What is we pushed our governmental leaders to mandate that new homes be built with solar panels, that wind power be exploited where possible, that we find ways of cleanly burning our garbage to create electricity rather than trucking it to distant landfills? What if the big automakers were forced to produce a greater percentage of hybrid cars? What if we spent more on R&D to create fuel cell technology and hydrogen fuels? I know you can think of a dozen more ways to lessen our use of energy.
What do we accomplish? First we reduce our dependence on Middle East oil and stop funding regimes that are hostile to America, we reduce our own household energy costs and we create less pollution.
Why hasn't Mr. Bush spoken out and said let's get with it America? The answer is obvious. The President is beholden to big oil and their largesse to his many political campaigns and those of his father's. That is pretty much a given.
So we have no alternative to spread the word and do what we can as individuals to turn the tide. Either we do or we just continue to look at the possibility of $100 for a barrel of oil that will be burned in our cars, homes and power plants that will eventually choke us to death by depleting our atmosphere.
Is it really that hard to sacrifice just a little comfort for the planet?