Super Eco

Photo credit: woodman2, SXC

The big news this weekend: With no time left to corral a worldwide agreement on trimming greenhouse gas emissions at next month's climate change summit in Copenhagen, politicians and environmentalists alike are scrambling to salvage what they can from the situation. U.S. President Obama is now throwing his support behind a Danish plan to view Copenhagen as the first in a series of commitments, rather than an opportunity to forge a landmark global climate protocol.

So what's the holdup? Embarrassingly enough, it's the U.S. Senate. Lack of progress in the U.S. legislature has thrown the entire world into a holding pattern. As Grist notes, "the Senate, already unrepresentative thanks to the disproportionate influence of rural, low-population states, has become, thanks to the routine use of filibusters and holds, grotesquely undemocratic."

And so the world waits. And waits. Reports Grist: “Clearly, the U.S. has been slowing things down,” said Artur Runge-Metzger, the European Union’s chief climate negotiator. Alicia Montalbo, chief negotiator for Spain (the next country to hold the rotating European Union presidency), echoed Kaiser’s sentiments more indirectly, saying: “There’s a certain level of frustration in seeing that not all countries share (the) vision.” More of the same came from Denmark’s climate minister, Connie Hedegaard: “We can’t imagine having an agreement without the United States, they have to be a part of it,” she told Agence France-Presse.

Speaking of being a part of it—you are, in a most literal sense. There's never been a better time to make your voice heard. The way your own representatives conduct themselves on Capitol Hill is literally shaping the world as we know it. If your reps are among those playing with stall tactics, let them know their behavior is unacceptable. It's time to turn the heat up on efforts to chill climate change progress.

Onward.