Kyoto Treaty

I have been reading some posts about this issue recently and am also furious that our President hasn't included our nation in the protocol. We are by far the largest polluting nation in the world, even though our population is much smaller than countries like India and China. We have a responsibility to join and ensure the protection of our environment and our resources. I hope people are writing both the president and the EPA and asking when we are going to become world leaders in this issue!
What I actually wanted to say was, in reading about this issue, I have found a few companies that are going ahead with the requirement of the protocol even though our country hasn't joined. Now, I'm not saying that any of these countries deserve sainthood or even an award. But I do think they are doing the proper thing by recognizing the risk of doing nothing. Two major companies that have been ahead of the EPA for years, and are currently compliant with the Kyoto protocol are Dupont and Chevron. I found this out simply by using google news and reading a few articles. I hope that other companies follow their lead despite the ignorant example set by our President.

Show Me the Money Mr. Bush

I was reading some articles today about the Presidents' new budget proposals. He has proposed a virtual spending freeze on anything not related to national security. While I do think it's about time he started acting responsibly about the deficit and the effect it will have on our economy, I also read about some of the programs that will suffer next year. One of these programs is called the millennium Challenge Account, or MCA. The MCA was created by this administration as a way to reward countries who make strides to attain democracy, freedom, human rights and governments who successfully help the poor, sick and disadvantaged in their country. If a government is shown to meet certain standards of improvement in these areas, we reward them with money to aid development and technology in that country. It sort of goes along with the UN and their millennium Goals to fight poverty and the spread of disease. When the Prez. created the fund, he promised initial funding of 6 billion dollars. As of today, over eleven countries have met the standards and should be receiving money. None of them have. Furthermore, as part of his FY06 budget, the President is actually granting the MCA less than 3 billion dollars, half of what he promised. I guess we shouldn't be surprised, after all this President loves to pass acts and create programs without planning on how to pay for them. On glaring example is No Child Left Behind. The really discouraging thing in this situation is in countries like Bolivia (one country that did meet the standards of improvement) 3 billion dollars can do so much! I guess this President didn't take his own inauguration speech to heart, maybe the words were too complicated or something.