Commentary

Reducing CO2 emissions or, using the developing buzz phrase, 'going green', has made great strides during the past year.  Being close to the global warming fight, one can get stuck on the glass being half empty but here is the case for the glass being half full.

The biggest change is in American business.  Companies like Bank of America, Citicorp, Walmart, AIG, Dell, and hundreds of others are taking steps to get greener.  There is a new corporate job title becoming important in Fortune 1000 companies: Chief Sustainability Officer.  A new energy bill signed into law will push the fuel economy standards up dramatically during the next 5 years.  Most surprising to me is that this law would not have been possible had Detroit not agreed to go along. 

A group of large US businesses have teamed up with several environmental organizations to create the United States Climate Action Partnership which calls for strong national legislation to require significant reductions of CO2 emissions.  The US companies involved are not companies that start with a green advantage.  These are companies in CO2 intensive industries: GM, Ford, Chrysler, Alcoa, Duke Energy, Xerox, General Electric, etc. so their decision to support CO2 reduction is a big deal.

Toyota recently sold it's one millionth Prius.  The Camry and the Highlander SUV also come in hybrid versions.  BMW is about to release a powerful 7 series luxury sedan that runs on hydrogen and diesel: hydrogen, an incredibly clean fuel but rarely available and diesel so that when you run out of hydrogen, you just keep driving on the diesel in your tank.

China, a country with rapidly growing CO2 emissions and an enormous demand for electricity is investing billions of dollars in clean energy technology.  China wants it badly, not just because of global warming but because the coal they burn has created such awful air pollution and health problems in China.

Of the four top Republican and Democratic presidential candidates in the US Presidential campaign, only one does not favor national CO2 legislation.

Several major airlines offer customers carbon offsets along with their tickets to try to neutralize some of the CO2 being produced by the flight.

Another major cultural/political milestone is President Bush, a former oil man and someone with close ties to the oil industry saying that the US is addicted to oil and acknowledging the science of global warming rather than saying that the issue needs 'more study'.

British companies have started labeling their products with the amount of CO2 produced to create the product. 

There are so many more examples but there at least is a small piece of the glass-half-full view.