The title of this post is a subject that will dominate the news this year on climate change. For all intents and purposes the debate on the human causes of warming is over and irrelevant; the time for accelerated action, both personal and global, is here. This blog will no longer engage in arguments regarding the reality of climate change or its causes- the evidence is everywhere and its stature as a global catastrophe is equally evident. The energy put into arguing and denial campaigns needs to be redirected into useful actions designed to slow and eventually reverse the process.

National politics offers very little in the way of actions or financing of these efforts. Climate change is not a national issue, it is a global issue. Weather, flooding, droughts, fires, rising oceans, warming, water issues and cooling have no respect for for borders. The only border that contains this change is the thin atmosphere of our small planet and it encompasses all of us as humans equally. Money may buy individuals some reprieve but no matter how wealthy you are you cannot protect your grandchildren from a world that will little resemble the one we have enjoyed and abused.

Economics will be the driving factor in combating climate change. Savvy business managers and investors know that crisis always represents opportunity to grow and profit. The rising real cost of gas and home heating fuels is finally bringing energy innovation into the forefront as entrepreneurs and scientists see the opportunity to provide innovation as a solution and a means to grow rich. Market forces are already creating change that activists and politicians were helpless to accelerate.

While our President belatedly realizes the awful mess he has created with his short-sighted energy policies and goes begging to Middle Eastern Oil countries, the markets are adapting. The fact that a conservative President is so ignorant of market reality that he thinks the sheiks can simply change prices is appalling but offers obvious backing for the reality of markets as the drivers of change- prices are not up because of Arab greed, they are up because massive new sources of demand, principally India and China, have appeared.

The only solutions to escalating energy demand and growing carbon and greenhouse gas emissions are in technological innovation combined with market regulating systems like carbon credit trading. Both work because both represent opportunities for profit. It would be nice to believe in an altruistic business rationale that takes responsibility for long term consequences of decisions made today, however the profiteering of the oil companies in recent years and short-sighted lobbying against even mild CAFE standards by automakers are just two examples of why we cannot expect anything but growth and profit to really force change.

The fortunate conclusion of this idea is that markets can force change and speed to market often determines success. Those who solve the big problems in energy, sustainability, reduction and elimination of carbon, population issues and more will be the titans of the next century. I only hope it’s not too late and they are not too greedy in the short term like those who have gone before them.