No matter what your political stance on the greenhouse effect, you probably realize that at some point all of the rhetoric will stop being rhetoric and will turn into laws that are going to affect the day to day routines of your life. Most people simply aren't willing to make the sacrifices necessary to reduce green house gas emissions without someone telling them that they have to. Unless people are willing to make changes on their own, the government will eventually be forced to legislate the activities of individual consumers.

It isn't that they don't care about the greenhouse effect. The fact is, most people simply don't know what to do about it on a real level. They don't know how to reduce their own emissions of greenhouse gases much less save the world. Take all those factories you're supporting by using so much detergent. We could all get together and decide not to wash our clothes and bodies quite as much. It wouldn't be unhealthy, and it would put a dent in how much those factories run, and probably get them to find a less-hazardous way to make detergent. But who, realistically, is going to do that? You, as an individual, stand to lose a lot of social status by going around unwashed. Who is going to sacrifice his or her social status for the sake of life on Planet Earth?

So, chances are, the greenhouse effect will probably not be taken care of on an individual level. It could be, but it probably won't, because people simply aren't willing to give up the luxuries to which they have grown accustomed. And yes, staying squeaky-clean is a luxury. It's a demand created by the manufacturers of soap products themselves. Our emissions of greenhouse gases could be significantly reduced if we could just see our way clear to stop being led around by marketing experts.

Of course, the United Nations have been getting together for a Convention on Climate Change to discuss our options as a species when it comes to the greenhouse effect. That's a good thing, because you can't do anything if you don't lay out all the facts on the table. If we are going to continue on this particular path, we need to do it with our eyes open. If we are indeed willing to sacrifice the planet for our luxuries, then we should know that is what we are doing. Emissions of greenhouse gases are going to continue, but we should all be aware of what we are doing to the environment. Only then will we know whether we actually care.

The 26th sessions of the Convention on Climate Change takes place in May 2007. Whether what comes out of those meetings will actually be able to alter the greenhouse effect will be something we will simply have to wait to see. Perhaps there has already been some change. Perhaps we would be experiencing far more emissions of greenhouse gases if the Convention on Climate Change hadn't already been going on for so long. But the fact is, there is so much more we can do. We have to make it easy on the individual. That's the only way the individual is going to participate.