Last week, House Representative Ed Markey, who represents the third precinct of Wayland, and is chairman of the special House committee on global warming, introduced a bill that would set up a cap-and-trade program to regulate carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions in the United States. The plan is one of the most aggressive created and would be tremendous for the long-term interests of the United States.

Under the plan, carbon dioxide that is emitted would be capped at a certain amount per year, with that amount decreasing in each subsequent year. To see how the full plan works, check it out in the Wall Street Journal blog, “Environmental Capital.”

The plan faces opposition from both Republicans and Midwest Democrats. This is not surprising. Many Republicans have long denied that humans have any ability to impact the climate, or they believe that taking any action against climate change would be too harmful to the economy. Midwesterners-I’m looking at you, Kansas-living in states full of coalmines and coal power plants believe they would be disproportionately affected by any attempts to limit emissions.

Surprisingly, opposition is also popping up in many other places. Because of the current recession, some have come to the conclusion that fighting global warming would only hurt an economy that is already extremely weak. Global warming activists have been cheated even more as the economy suffers. There is some distorted belief that fighting global warming will hurt the economy. However, if we don’t stop global warming now, the economy will be hurt even more.

Newscasters talk about how the “next generation” is going to be stuck with the problem of global warming. That “next generation” is people our age, and we need to convince our representatives to stop polluting greenhouse gas emissions.

The hardest thing about passing global warming legislation is the “deferred gratification.” Unlike cleaning up a polluted river, the benefits of spending to fight global warming are not immediate. Carbon dioxide can remain in the atmosphere for more than a century. This makes it difficult to convince people to support bills fighting climate change.

But the recession is no excuse to stop caring about the future. Besides, advancements in green technology will create millions of jobs in the energy, construction, and automobile industries. These could make up for any supposed “job losses” that could be incurred by a cap and trade regime. The time to act is now. We must stop global warming.