By Dennis Holt
Senior Editor

When I first heard the phrase “carbon cap,� I thought it might have something to do with the baseball uniform of the Carbondale, Illinois, high school. My grandfather was born in Carbondale.

It didn’t take long for me to realize that I was wrong. It took me at the time far less than it took the world to realize that it was environmentally destroying itself — a sure and steady suicide.

We did not plan to do this; like most things of large scale, we, for the longest time, didn’t even realize what we were doing, and for many the realization has come grudgingly. Some are still ostriches. Listen to this guy speaking on the floor of the House last week:

“Climate change is nothing but a hoax that has been perpetrated out of the scientific community.� This winner was said by Republican Congressman Paul Broun of Georgia.

The vote last Friday in the House of Representatives to curb global warming was the first major step by the American government to start trying to redress the grievous conditions we have caused. I reacted to that vote with very mixed emotions.

For one thing, at last we are on our way. For another, how could the vote be so close — 219 to 212? 44 Democrats broke ranks and only eight Republicans voted for it.

The Republicans are still being irresponsible. They see this bill as a chance to accuse the Democrats in 2010 of “raising taxes,� one of their historic war cries. The 44 Democrats were mostly from coal-producing or big coal-using states, and those that use a lot of coal, like power plants, are going to be the most financially vulnerable.

The tedious business of stopping our pollution is going to take time and be costly, and there will be highs and lows. It should also present innovators with opportunities for new technolgies and new industries. President Obama is counting on that happening, while we as a country try to reinvent our industrial base, long shattered by globalization and the attendant outsourcing.

Some have argued this bill doesn’t go far enough and contains too many loopholes. They are right. The first cat out of the box is never as good as others that follow. But there has to be a first one; there will be more.

Perfectionists and purists are saddened that Obama hasn’t gone far enough across the board to erase eight years of madness. I wish he’d do more, too, but there is so much to move on, he must prioritize.

The health care bill probably won’t be letter perfect either, nor will legislation on energy issues or taxes and on and on.

But last week’s vote on the environment was our first major move on the subject. That begins to erase the eight years we threw away.

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