Warming to the Inconvenient Facts

Washington feels the heat: A Bolivian tourist cools off in a spray mister at the National Zoo last week. (By Lois Raimondo -- The Washington Post)

"There's no way we can solve all these problems as long as the oil-and-coal monopoly calls the shots in Washington," says Ross Gelbspan, the author of "Boiling Point."

Sooner or later, and probably sooner, politics will also have to face the predicted effects of climate change, such as more frequent hurricanes and wildfires, rising sea levels and persistent water shortages. That may require rethinking federal flood insurance, lax wetlands protections and other policies that promote development in vulnerable areas. The irrigation-friendly water laws of the West may not survive a new era of drought. The Homeland Security Department could be forced to shift its focus from terrorism to natural disasters and disease outbreaks, and taxpayers would have to decide how much they want to pay for skyrocketing disaster costs here and abroad.

The climate emergency is not yet driving these debates; it is only offering "now more than ever" ammunition for supporters of various policies. Last year, Congress passed a "comprehensive" energy bill that did nothing to cure our oil addiction and a $286 billion transportation bill that will mostly fund new sprawl roads. Corn ethanol -- arguably the least efficient biofuel -- has gained new support from would-be presidential candidates such as Sen. George Allen (R-Va.), but it has always had plenty of backers.

Washington is finally talking about climate. But for action, try Bentonville, Ark., where Wal-Mart chief executive H. Lee Scott Jr. announced this month that his company would double the energy efficiency of its 7,000-truck fleet in a decade, reduce waste from its U.S. stores by 25 percent in three years and design a new prototype store that will reduce greenhouse emissions by 30 percent. "Have you ever known Wal-Mart not to follow through on a commitment of this kind?" one speaker asked. "I have not."

The speaker was Al Gore.

Indeed, Wal-Mart is already cutting emissions, which is a big deal, because the company is the largest private consumer of electricity on the planet. Wal-Mart has reduced its fuel use 8 percent by preventing its trucks from idling, saving $25 million over the past year while cutting 100,000 metric tons of emissions. It recently began buying organic cotton, and all 3,700 of its U.S. stores are using energy-efficient light bulbs. Wal-Mart is so big that a slight reduction in the packaging of one of its toy lines saved the company $2.4 million last year by cutting trucking costs, while saving 1,000 barrels of oil and 3,800 trees.

Scott thinks waste reduction and energy efficiency are good for business as well as the Earth; he eventually wants his company to generate zero waste and use only renewable energy, and he wants his 60,000 suppliers to follow suit. That could drive the climate debate faster than years of congressional bloviation.

And other sectors of corporate America are paying attention to climate as well. The storm-battered insurance and reinsurance industries are redlining vulnerable coastal areas. U.S. farmers are embracing no-till agriculture in growing numbers. Even some energy firms are trying to move "Beyond Petroleum," as the BP Global ads say; Entergy Corp. recently joined 12 states in suing the Bush administration over its refusal to regulate carbon emissions.

States are leading the battle against greenhouse gases, filing lawsuits against the Bush administration's fuel-efficiency and clean-air efforts as well. California, for example, has proposed strict fuel-efficiency standards for cars sold in the state, and Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger wants to reduce the state's greenhouse emissions 80 percent by 2050. As last week's heat wave stoked brownout fears, he also announced a statewide conservation push, pleading with Californians to use less energy.

Ultimately, conservation will have to play a big role in any emissions cuts; Vice President Cheney has mocked it as a virtuous but ludicrous energy strategy, yet the collective impact of individual actions could be huge. The question is whether Americans are capable of changing their way of life without a World War II-style emergency. So far, they don't seem to think global warming qualifies; a Pew Global Attitudes Project poll last month found that only 19 percent of Americans care about it "a great deal," compared with 66 percent of Japanese and 65 percent of Indians.

But we care about soaring energy prices. We may not buy energy-efficient bulbs just because Wal-Mart gives them nice shelf space, but we might if they'll reduce our rising electricity bills. We may not buy hybrid cars to save the planet, but we might buy them to save at the pump. Global warming hasn't forced us to get serious about conservation, but the energy crisis that our runaway consumption has helped to create just might.

Money, after all, talks even louder than Al Gore.

grunwaldmr@washpost.com

Michael Grunwald is a Washington Post staff writer

who bikes to work.