Most rational people already know that government has screwed-up priorities which are in many cases bought by special interests and paid for by the people. we gave out hundreds of billions to bankers for their part in the bubble, favored the auto unions over everyone involved in the used car market (parts, service, sales, and owners) and giving the lions share of "stimulus" money to female dominated markets during this He-cession. And lets not forget that this administration is championing Cap and Trade which would cost a trillion+ dollars but do nothing but destroy what is left of the American economy.
So in light of that, I read an AP report of the mercury mines in California that are releasing a tremendous amount of pollution into the water, ground and air. This causes "day-glo orange" streams and rivers to run into the larger waterways contaminating the food supply especially for the poorer residents who fish and hunt those lands. California produced ~90% of the mercury in the US and now there are between 550-2000 open mines that are polluting the water ways and there have been, apparently, only efforts at cleaning up ~10 such mines. But not to worry. Mining only stopped decades ago in California so we know that the gov is getting right on it as evidenced by this quote from Daniel Meer, EPA's assistant Superfund director for the region. "We are here to protect the environment, and sometimes we do it better than other times. We can't start cleaning up everything all at once." Oh, well that means they are working on it tho right? Let's see
what else Meer has to say: "It took a hundred years to occur," said the EPA's Meer. "And it may take a hundred years or more to solve." Well, there you have it. Gov moving with alacrity at protecting the citizenry from existing threats to the environment. With this kind of response I think we can all be proud of how our Gov will be able to solve AGW.
We could have paid off people's mortgages instead of paying bankers for being bankers. We could have spent the "stimulus" money on projects like infrastructure which is needed, and we could be looking at cleaning up real environmental problems rather than the bogey man of global warming. If I wasn't already so cynical about government I'd be appalled at how it pays off its special interests and wants the people to pay for things that do not benefit anyone but those interests. But as things stand, cynicism pays and pays well.