Everything I need to know about global warming I learned in 3rd grade

On Friday, April 17, 2009, the Environmental Protection Agency announced that they were formally declaring carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, hydrofluorocarbons, perfluorocarbons and sulfur hexafluoride as pollutants. I am extremely excited that the government has finally taken an official stand on how intensely human activity on the planet has impacted the state of our environment. The declaration opens doors for many new and necessary policies that could accelerate the changes that need to be made before we cause our own extinction. In The 11th Hour, Leonardo DiCaprio told me that the U.S. government's denial of the severity of climate change and global warming was the single biggest obstacle to positive change. So, the EPA's announcement is good.

On the other hand, the fact that it is 2009 and the EPA, the governmental agency appointed to monitor and regulate the state of our environmnet, is only now declaring the danger of these potent gases is disturbing. When I was in 3rd grade in 1994, my mother gave me a book called 50 Simple Things Kids Can Do to Save the Earth (the book was actually published in 1990....19 years ago). Now, I remember quite clearly that "The Greenhouse Effect" was described in that book as one of the "things that was happening" that needed to be stopped. The Greenhouse Effect was the 90's phrase for global warming. So, I, as an 8 year old, knew more about global warming, its consequences, and what I could do to stop it, than the EPA did in 2007.

If the EPA was a schoolkid, I would have require it to take the 3rd grade over again, as it just isn't keeping up with its peers.