Contributions Unlimited

This is the time when CEOs of nation's top wind and solar trade organizations pass for celebrities (quoting Kent Garber, US News) and a teenager worries more about killing hundreds by consuming a glass of water and not about his allowance ( http://www.boston.com/lifestyle/green/articles/2009/02/09/climate_change_takes_a_mental_toll/). 

We have been hearing too much about renewables and in this wake, we can see big-shot companies contributing in whichever way they can. Now, we don't know whether its for publicity or true concern. Microsoft has come up with an add-on to their Dynamics AX business applications. This helps educate small and mid size companies collect and assess their energy usage statistics and convert them into environmental impact data (http://news.cnet.com/8301-11128_3-10158547-54.html). On the other end, Google too has decided to launch another one of their free web services, called the Powermeter and this would assess the amount of energy (in terms of electricity) being used in workplaces and households (http://ub-news.com/news/google-powermeter-electricity-tracker/736.html).

We do not know how much help this is going to be. Are people going to start using less and conserving more because a certain application on the net helps them read their consumption and hence the environmental impact? We never know! Just a few years back, three to be precise, a survey by the MIT's Laboratory for Energy and the Environment showed that any change in the U.S. Climate Policy won't happen due to public opinion or intervention. People did not seem deterred or bothered about the changes their environment was undergoing and out of the 22 most important problems facing the U.S., the environment and climatic changes grabbed the 13th place (http://www.physorg.com/news3485.html). It was then decided that the survey would be taken again after a span of two or three years and voila, after a matter of just a single year, Americans ranked Climate Change as the most pressing issues that their country is facing (http://www.physorg.com/news81529570.html). Hence, we can rest assure that the public is thinking the way it should and the opinion that the public gives out on any policy is going to be good enough. Now, the question is whether there is going to be a policy that is going to help the country and hence the Americans dismiss environmental concerns as something that they needn't worry about. Will there be such a day??!!! Well, on that note, there is a claim that sulfur di oxide is the primary cause of global warming and not our good ol' carbon di oxide (http://planetjh.com/news/Article.aspx?ArticleID=104742). Maybe there can be a 'full stop' in the near future after all. That's something we all need to ponder about!