Kyoto Protocol went into effect today. Living in a country whose government is deep in denial and is trying the hardest to derail this global effort is demoralizing. So I am delight to know our local government are not standing by the sideline and has made policies to reducing emissions. It is also hopeful that states and business would have better foresight than the federal government to ignore the risk of global climate change.

There is also a call to action on personal level such as in this Ratifying Kyoto at Home article. Living in United States right now, I am afraid I would be responsible for more emission than in 1990 when I was a student in Hong Kong. Nevertheless, I still try within my means to be more responsible. Some actions I have been taking are:

• Go to work using public transportation.

• Keeping home energy use lean.

• Divert more than 50% of solid waste to recycling.

Although this is not expected to have any measurable impact to global emission, I believe the awareness on personal, local and state level is crucial to bring the United States into compliance.

2005.02.16 [climate] - comments