One Giant Step for America, One Teeny-Tiny Step for Mankind

EPA: Greenhouse gases a health danger
Agency announcement timed to boost Obama at climate conference
BREAKING NEWS
The Associated Press
updated 9:12 a.m. CT, Mon., Dec . 7, 2009

WASHINGTON - The Environmental Protection Agency has concluded greenhouse gases are endangering people's health and must be regulated, officials told The Associated Press.
The EPA will announced its findings at a news conference Monday.
The announcement is timed to boost the Obama administration's arguments at an international climate conference — beginning this week — that the United States is taking actions to combat global warming, even though Congress has yet to act on climate legislation.
Under a Supreme Court ruling, the so-called endangerment finding is needed before the EPA can regulate carbon dioxide and five other greenhouse gases released from power plants, factories and automobiles under the federal Clean Air Act.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/34311724/ns/us_news-environment/
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The finding by the EPA falls under the category of "DUH!" But keeping greenhouse gases out of the purvey of the EPA has never been about common sense. It's never been about reality. It's never been about the good of the American people. It's never been about what's best for us all. It's been about politics, about business, about campaign contributions, about dividends and bottomlines. It's been about MONEY.

But it seems that as we race toward the tipping point when we won't be able to stop this planet from becoming uninhabitable by humans in their present form, maybe some part of the collective conscience is realizing a big bank roll for a few now won't mean much to anyone in the not-too-distant future. After 8 years of neocon politics at the federal level, this small step under Obama seems like a very big deal to me. The caveat here is that opening CO2 to regulation and actually regulating it are two different things, but it's a very nice start.

So, I applaud our species on taking one itsy-bitsy baby step toward making sense in regard to our stewardship of this planet. Yay us!