Global Warming Blah, Blah, Blah

So my brother and I were just sitting around talking about the global warming thing. There are lots of scary things being written, broadcast, talked about and on and on. One particular story I recently saw says that British researchers have surmised that the ice caps are melting faster than first thought. It could be that global warming is going to be a bigger problem for us sooner than we thought. The thing that is irritating me is that politicians and big business interests are standing in the way of anything being done quickly enough to avert the coming disaster. Make no mistake, just about everyone agrees the global warming thing is really happening. The thing everyone is disagreeing on is what the real impact and consequences are going to be and how to avert them. The numbers being thrown around about reducing co2 emissions 20% by 2050 seems to me like it will be too little too late. I think we could do it sooner if people would get a little creative and quit being so lazy and selfish. I mean honestly, does anyone really need to be burning gas at unprecedented levels driving energy guzzling vehicles like the Hummer? Yeah I know, "this is America pal, we can do anything we want if we can afford it". But just because you can afford it doesn't mean it is a good idea!
Okay, so lots of people can't use a bicycle to get to their job, or to the store, or whatever, but there are plenty of people who can! Here are some facts I picked up doing a little research:
The average American car owner currently burns 600 gallons of gas per year. The burning of the gas creates 12,000 pounds of Co2! There are about 232 million cars currently registered. Let's see, that's 2 trillion, 784 billion, pounds of Co2. That's a lot! Come on people, we need to do something about this. If we wait for political leadership on this your grandchildren will be buying beach front property in Pennsylvania and wondering how they are going to get food!
By the way, did you know that while the US makes up only 5% of the worlds population, we create 43% of the emissions?
While there will undoubtedly be technological solutions being created along the way, we are going to run out of time before they can get the job done. One of the answers currently available to us is to simply using less fossil fuel now. Right this minute. Don't wait for someone else to do it. You do it. Stop relying on your car and start thinking of your bicycle as more than just a recreational toy. If we could all learn to reduce our fuel consumption by 20% that would go a long way towards solving the problem. Imagine it. Regular Americans taking things in to their own hands and solving the problem in spite of the corporate pirates who are willing to mortgage the future of our planet for profits this quarter.