Terminating CO₂

IF YOU'RE UNDER 45, chances are good that you've heard about global warming since your high school days.

You may even have fretted about it -- and wondered why no one else seemed to.

Well, this year, global warming finally arrived as a mainstream American concern.

In March, Gallup's polling showed that 62 percent of Americans said they worried a fair amount to a great deal about it -- an 11 point jump from the last time the polling firm had asked, two years early. In April, Time magazine made global warming its cover story, telling readers to "Be worried. Be very worried." Al Gore's movie, "An Inconvenient Truth," came out in May, explaining the science -- and the consequences -- of global warming in clear, easy-to-comprehend terms and gripping graphics.

But here's the best evidence of how politically popular the issue has become: In the midst of his re election campaign, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Republican governor of California, signed sweeping legislation requiring the Golden State to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 25 percent over the next 14 years.

Now if someone would just wake up the White House . . .

Scot Lehigh's e-mail address is lehigh@globe.com.