Home is Where the Heart Is

Despite Awareness of Global Warming Americans Concerned More About Local Environment - Science Daily

I find the results of this study unsurprising. People are most concerned about what they see every day. Their drinking water, their quality of air and the look of their town or city is something that they can't simply wish was different. And, as the old maxim goes, politics starts at home. What politicians can do is make the local issue of pollution a national one and thus begin pushing for state and nation-wide action. Moreover, these environmental concerns are symptoms of the larger problem of global warming. For a nation like the U.S. that does produce the majority of global impacting pollution, local efforts could pay off in a big way. Not only would the quality of live improve in the cities but you would have many examples to draw from when other cities finally decide to tackle their own pollution problems. The federal government has a lot of ways of addressing the issue of global warming through trade relations and human rights issues, but those efforts will only have a marginal effect overall. What the U.S. can do by making the issue of global warming local is show how an economy such as ours can still turn a profit while going green. If we wish to stand as an exemplar of action taken on global warming then we actually need to act, and act in a way that others can copy. Making global warming a local issue is a good way of doing just that.