Government and Global Warming

Preventing the disastrous effects of global warming is a goal that the government should continue to pursue.

There may be some natural cause of global warming that has nothing to do with humans, but we can't prove it.

But the fact is there is a lot of pollution caused by humans. It's obvious. It's all around us.  I'm guilty; you're guilty.  Can anyone say they haven't polluted at all? 

We have a responsibility to take good care of our planet for the sake of our children and grandchildren. 

Unfortunately it's natural to continue doing what is comfortable and hope that someone else is recycling or inventing some magical device to clean up all the damage we've done so far.  It's not natural to deprive ourselves of our pollution-causing conveniences because any individual doing so will be placing him or herself at a disadvantage compared to the other people on the planet who will not make the same sacrifice. A person who decides to make a life change and stop polluting is like a drop of water at the side of the river. That drop stops but the river of humanity will continue polluting as long as its the path of least resistance.

Individual change is not enough. Our entire civilization needs to change in some ways in order to preserve our beautiful planet. 

We may not be able to adequately clean up the damage we've already done but we need to try and we can also try to cause less damage in the future.

The government is the only organization with the power to restrain our collective behavior so we can redirect the river of humanity to a safe destination.

We'll need to combine advancements in technology with social pressure.

Some changes, like having separate trash, recyclable, and green waste cans for weekly pickup have already happened in many parts of the country.   This is a kind of change has a small impact on each individual participating but a large positive impact on the environment.  It's very good.

We may also need to make big changes in how we live, where we choose to work, how we travel, how we manufacture goods, how we generate electricity, and so on.  I believe that such big changes will probably not happen until some disaster occurs that strikes fear and pain into the hearts of people everywhere, enough to spur the survivors to make a big change.  People will then come up with a social solution that will prevent such a disaster from happening again, or at least protect them in some way from the damage of a similar future disaster. 

If we're capable of inventing such social solutions tomorrow, we're capable of inventing them today.  Why not implement today the solutions that will prevent or limit tomorrow's disaster?  The individual answer is because we can't see that it's needed... after all, life is still going on. It's the drop in the river mentality. But if the government were to help this along, we may accomplish something.

So what's better?  Letting the government shape our behavior to reduce pollution or enjoy our freedoms while they last and let our grandchildren deal with the consequences?   And if we choose to shape our behavior, how are we going to influence the rest of the world so that our nation as a whole is not just a drop in the river?