A historic thing happened in Washington DC last week.  The House of Representatives voted on the Waxman-Markey climate change bill. 44 Democrats voted against it, 8 Republicans voted for it and with only one “yay” to spare, the bill passed on Friday, June 26^th with 219 votes.

I’ve been reading about the pro’s and con’s and why two Democratic Representatives from my home state of Oregon voted against it. Honestly I can’t say for sure if I’m entirely for or against it, but I do know this is a big deal. The health and well-being of our planet for future generations is dependent on legislation like this.

If you’re like me and didn’t take the time to educate yourself about the climate change bill before the House voted, here is a short list of resources I recommend reading to help navigate all the buzz.

Here are two useful summaries of the bill from Climate Progress and Salon.com

This NYT article talks about who is for and against the bill and why.

Here is Grist’s light-hearted but informative take on it.

The Huffington Post talks about the flack the 8 lonely republicans are getting post “yay”.

Treehugger, my personal favorite, wrote a lot about the bill.  Here are two are must-reads; “Everything You Need to Know” and “Green Groups Mustn’t Surrender When the Battle is Just Starting”.