An Adelie penguin looks over the edge of an iceberg on Paulet Island, Antarctica.
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States are also joining hands to curb emissions from power plants--the coal burned in Pennsylvania, after all, doesn't pause at the New Jersey state line. In 2003 then Governor George Pataki of New York launched the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, a confederation of northeastern and mid-Atlantic states that has created its own cap-and-trade program, with the goal of reducing emissions 10% below the current level by 2019. Nine states are part of the group, with Maryland set to join in June. In February five Western states embraced a similarly ambitious goal.
At the local level, Mayor Greg Nickels of Seattle, who was incensed after the Senate walked away from the international Kyoto global-warming accords, began what has become a nationwide movement to bring U.S. cities into compliance. As of last month, 431 mayors representing more than 61 million Americans had signed on, imposing higher parking taxes, buying hybrid vehicles for the municipal fleet, helping local businesses audit their energy use and even converting traffic lights from incandescents to LEDs, which are 90% more efficient. Says Nickels: "I think this sends a message that there is intelligent life in America."
The Twin Elephants
No matter how aggressively the U.S. tackles its carbon problem, the global outlook hinges on the coal-fired economies of the world's two looming giants: China and India. Between 1990 and 2004, energy consumption rose 37% in India and 53% in China. Beijing is building new coal-fired power plants at the startling rate of one every week. While the most technologically sophisticated coal plants operate at almost 45% efficiency, China's top out at just 33%.
But China and India are hardly energy hogs--not if you consider the amount of emissions that any single person living there generates. Americans' per capita emission of carbon dioxide is about 21.75 tons. In China it's just 4.03; in India it's an even smaller 1.12. Yet that is going to change. Up to 50% of the Indian population lives almost entirely off the grid, and the government is determined to bring them aboard. The Chinese economy has been growing at the rate of 10% a year, and Beijing is not inclined to slow down. China is expected to pass the U.S. in total greenhouse emissions before 2010.
Not all is bleak. The U.S.-based Natural Resources Defense Council is trying to help the Chinese clean up, working with their businesses to audit energy consumption and developing a fund to bankroll the installation of more efficient equipment in factories. Barbara Finamore of the China Clean Energy Program estimates that this could eliminate the need for 3,000 new power plants over the next few decades. China also imposes higher taxes on large cars than on small ones; subsidizes wind, solar and other renewables; and has passed a law that aims to make 15% of the country's power come from renewables by 2020.
India is further behind China in developing renewable-energy sources, but the need for power is spurring innovation. India has an aggressive solar and wind industry, with one company, Suzlon, generating $1.5 billion in wind-turbine revenue in 2006. But India, with its less-developed economy, cannot as easily afford the cost of going green--or at least greener. "The Indian government has not taken the problem seriously," says Steve Sawyer, a policy adviser for Greenpeace International.
It sometimes seems that the same can be said for the entire world. It's not surprising that faced with a problem of this magnitude, people will yield to the impulse to lay blame. Voters blame politicians. Politicians blame industry. Industry blames an overweening government. Prius owners blame Hummer drivers. But never mind who caused the problem, its very enormity means that all of the finger pointers will have a role in cleaning it up. It took generations to foul the planet as badly as we have, and it will surely take generations to reverse things. The difference is, we had the leisure of beginning our long industrial climb whenever we wanted to. We don't have the leisure of waiting to clean up after it. A World of Trouble Total carbon dioxide emissions from the burning of fossil fuels, by region [This article consists of a complex diagram. Please see hardcopy of magazine.]
After the original version of this story was published, Bank of America notified TIME that it is no longer considering the use of wind energy for its Manhattan tower.