Americans are pawns in big global warming picture

A letter to the editor caused an interesting stir when it was published in the Cache daily recently. The writer suggested that as troublesome -- heck, potentially threatening -- the concept we have come to know as global warming is, that there is very little man can do change the origins of it.

His point -- which was lost on most who responded -- was that someone else, er, ah, make that Someone Else, is in charge. A volcano blast here, an extended jet stream change there, a change from El Nino to La Nina, and the whole global warming issue changes. And you could almost see in your mind's eye the soft berets on the receding hairlines, the brown patches on the elbows, the pipes clinched between the teeth of those who responded with the most anger.

This idea went right over their heads.

How dare he suggest there is nothing man can do, came the hue and cry. 

The letter writer suggested no such thing. As sure as man is not in control of weather, man is in charge of taking care of the planet and there is much that can be done. Knowing that man can't cause a tsunami should not be an excuse to not do all that can be done to improve our current position. Every aluminum can picked up off the highway helps ease litter. Every light turned off, every bike ridden to work, theoretically helps keep us green.

But if I could reinforce his point it would be to say: when you look at the big picture, there's not a lot the average American can do to make a sweeping change with regard to origins of global warming, especially weather-caused origins.

Can I make a second point on the subject?

When you look at the big picture, there's not a lot the average American can do to make a sweeping change with regard to global warming, especially industrial-caused origins. 
I'm not normally a "glass-half-empty" kind of guy, but get your arms around this fact: Eighty percent of the pollution now being spewed into the Earth's  atmosphere which is leading directly to global warming and long-term damage to the planet is being produced in China and India. Eighty percent of so-called greenhouse gases have as their origin the "emerging nations" of China and India alone.

Americans -- whether they have patches on their sport coats or not -- have a tendency to put on myopic blinders, thinking the sun, moon and stars revolve around them. As important as we are in the world, we sometimes act like we are alone. We buy our hybrids and screw in our funny-looking light bulbs and pat ourselves on the back. And any good those two simple acts did is negated in seconds by another power plant or factory coming on line in India.

And, in the words of a friend of mine who frequents India for business, they could not care less. 

One of the real rubs in this big global warming picture is that not only is America a minor contributor to the problem, but they will be the biggest recipient of the fallout that is bound to occur should the problem go unabated. Follow these dominos: China and India continue to pour pollutants into the atmosphere. Deterioration and global warming follow. Drought, food shortages and political unrest -- caused by resultant poverty and famine -- are next, resulting in new patterns of immigration and refugee situations.

The United States, however, will continue be seen as the land of promise, as my glass-half-full says it surely is. America will accept and bear the brunt of waves of new immigrants, the source of which is the money-hungry plundering of current emerging economies. America will also be called upon for increasing humanitarian assistance around the world, putting our military and commodity levels at lower and lower levels.

Sorry for the bad news, but somebody had to tell you.

So rather than focusing on light bulbs, Congress should be focusing on forcing change around the globe. Trade sanctions, immigration sanctions and pressure on China and India are a must. Would we get their attention if we said there will be no more trade with these countries until they truly clean up their act? How about telling India that no more of their students could enter our country for higher education until changes are made?

If every time Americans turned off their lights or rode mass transit, thinking they are making a difference, they also wrote your congressman insisting on stronger measures worldwide, the message might finally get through.

But for now, well, it just looks like it's getting warmer.