Since Americans are Teenagers, They Won’t Understand Greenhouse Gases
Nicolas Loris /
The American public…just like your teenage kids, aren’t acting in a way that they should act. The American public has to really understand in their core how important this issue is.”
In case you haven’t heard, that was Secretary of Energy Steven Chu discussing your ability to curb greenhouse gas emissions. As long as we’re acting like teenagers, we might as well be treated like them. According to the Obama administration, we can’t understand what greenhouse gases are, so we’ll use the terms “carbon pollution” or “heat-trapping emissions” instead. From Lauren Morello, E&E reporter:
“We know that our planet’s future depends on a global commitment to permanently reduce greenhouse gas pollution,” President Obama said yesterday at the U.N. Summit on Climate Change in New York, one of several references to “greenhouse gas pollution” and “carbon pollution” sprinkled throughout his speech. The president also referred to “carbon pollution” in April, during a much-publicized speech to the National Academy of Sciences, and again in June, in a press conference just before the House voted to pass a broad climate and energy bill.