I´ve been seeing lots of idealistic, big-picture environmental news on the web the last few days. That´s to be expected, I guess, with Earth Day drawing near.

 

Earth Day: What a mix of thoughts and feelings the occasion evokes. I´ve always felt ambivalent toward it. It´s a fine event; I´m glad people do it, glad they revel in it, if only for a few days. But afterward it always feels anticlimactic, unfulfilled: "OK, what now?"

 

Maybe that´s because I´m partial to the idea, trite as it sounds, that every day should be Earth Day.

 

Whenever a scientist who´s spending his life studying climate change says something like "We´re running an uncontrolled experiment on the only home we have" -- well, I have two kids, and I hope they´ll eventually have a few of their own, and all of these kids will have to live in the world we leave them with. So this "uncontrolled experiment" business strikes a chord with me. There is a lot at stake.

 

The aforementioned quote comes from a lengthy article in this week´s New York Times Sunday Magazine, "The Power of Green" by Times columnist Thomas Friedman [free registration required]. It´s a thoughtful, expansive piece about geopolitics and energy and climate change and the green-business movement, and how entwined they all are. It´s practically a manifesto, and I mean that in the best way, because it points a way forward and recognizes the needs of all the disparate players in the picture.

 

Friedman doesn´t mince words, doesn´t understate the immensity of the task at hand. He calls for a "huge global industrial energy project" to slow the atmospheric buildup of carbon dioxide, and he acknowledges that industry and free markets are capable of accomplishing a large share of what is needed, but not all of it.

 

A key quote comes from General Electric Chairman Jeffrey Immelt, who notes that America´s big energy companies "are being asked to take a 15-minute market signal and make a 40-year decision, and that just doesn´t work."

 

Immelt goes on, "The U.S. government should decide: What do we want to have happen? How much clean coal, how much nuclear, and what is the most efficient way to incentivize people to get there?"

 

To which Friedman adds: "He´s dead right. The market alone won´t work. Government´s job is to set high standards, let the market reach them, and then raise the standards more."

 

There is lots more to chew on here. Set aside some time to read Freidman´s piece (do it soon, within the next week, before the Times archives it), and let me know what you think.

 

Also, Saturday at 9 p.m., the Discovery Channel will air a companion documentary, "Green: The New Red, White and Blue." It looks like it should make some pretty interesting viewing.

 

Pete Fehrenbach is assistant managing editor of Waste News. Past installments of this column are collected in the Inbox archive.

To subscribe or visit go to:  http://www.wastenews.com