Leading by example

Two good things happened this week: first, frustrated with Congress's inability to think about more than one issue at a time (and even then, unable to deal thoroughly with the single issue), President Obama ordered the Federal government to reduce its carbon output, i.e. greenhouse gases.

Quick history: At the first global climate treaty talks, in Kyoto, Japan, Bill Clinton promised to join the rest of the world in setting targets for CO2 output reductions. Then George Bush II scrapped the agreement, because it had been made by liberal socialist anti-business Democrats. And the rest of the world said, "WTF?"

Now, we finally have a chance to rejoin the planet at the next climate talks, in Copenhagen in December, and the U.S. President said this: "As the largest consumer of energy in the U.S. economy, the federal government can and should lead by example when it comes to creating innovative ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions."

Nice.

But even nicer — because this is America, powered by capitalism and governed by an ideology of "let the free market solve all problems," Apple announced that it was resigning from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce because of that organization's interference with needed changes to combat climate disaster. (Click on the image below to read Apple's official letter of resignation and protest.) This, even though we've all seen the dumbass commercials now, sponsored by the oil industry, that tell us how wonderful CO2 really is:



And the company isn't alone on leaving the CoC; even Pacific Gas & Electric — a coal-burning, CO2-emitting energy utility — has quit the Chamber over its refusal to acknowledge a warming world that's hurtling toward hell. Slow down and let this one sink in: a power company is saying we need regulations and restrictions and motivations to find a better, cleaner way of turning on the lights.

As Craig Ferguson says: It's a good day for America, everybody.




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