Copenhagen is a joke

The Climate Conference in Copenhagen only has four days left to make an agreement. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which consists of the best scientists all over the word, decided long ago that our planet is getting warmer. Ice caps the size of countries and islands are melting as we speak. Even if you don't understand the science, you surely can see the significance of an iceberg the size of Manhattan drifting off and melting away. The Earth is changing, and not in a good way.

Rapid economic development, fueled by fossil fuels, is the primary cause of the problem we're facing today. For hundreds of years, countries like the United States and Denmark enjoyed the luxury of polluting the air in order to get rich. Dirty industry is analogous to the capture and forced labor of unpaid black Africans in its role to get certain countries rich while other countries remained poor.

At the Kyoto conference in 1997, industrialized nations recognized that the global warming crisis was largely a result of their irresponsible growth spurts and accordingly agreed to take measures to reduce their emissions of global harming gasses a rate proportionate to their culpability. Unfortunately, the Kyoto deal was largely ignored and now the world is back at the table again in Copenhagen.

Poorer countries who cannot afford expensive renewable energy technologies need assistance in curbing greenhouse gas emissions and it's the duty of rich countries to help in whatever way they can since this predicament is largely their fault.

Houston, The Worst Recycler in the Nation

Why is it that Houston has the worst recycling record in the country? What will it take for Houstonians to come together and realize that our planet should not be treated as a dumping ground? As a Houston resident, I am embarrassed that my city is last on the list when it comes to something as important as recycling.

Our country's consumption oriented culture produces inordinate amounts of waste and certain municipalities don't bother to mitigate the impact of this waste on the environment. At least in San Francisco, residents can feel comfortable that a majority of their trash does not end up piled up in landfills polluting the earth for eons.

The City of Houston has one of the nation's strongest economies in this time of hardship, yet public officials refuse to spend a few dollars on protecting our planet. In other cities, recycling has been integrated into the fabric of society through programs that have made it accessible to ordinary citizens. In Houston, not only can I not leave my recycling outside to be collected alongside my trash, the nearest recycling facility is several miles away so I have to gas up my car and drive to another part of town just to drop of my recyclables. Environmentally conscious business owners have expressed that they too have to jump through hoops if they choose to recycle.

I guess it's only fitting that a fossil fuel hotbed like Houston wouldn't care about the footprint that we as humans are leaving on our only planet.