It’s easy to get caught up in the left/right extreme opinions in what is happening to the environment. The Left with their overbearing, preachy, “why aren’t you doing something NOW” argument and The Right with the uneducated, “it’s been this warm BEFORE” take on global warming. I personally choose to take the optimist’s angle and draw attention to the small shifts that are happening in the economy that have environmental implications.

The Price of Oil
Oh…we can run out of this stuff??

I’m glad gas is $3 a gallon! It’s creating a scramble to get products on the market.

Alternative fuels, Oil Recovery Emission Control Systems, and Hybrids are the beginning of an overdue “global apology” we owe our planet. Hell, if GM is onboard there must be some crazy money to be made.

In Charlotte North Carolina, the land of “if you ride a moped you must be a drunk”, there has been a small revolution of Downtown Bike Messengers and Vespa riders. People that don’t live in “BankTown” probably can’t understand how big this is…I just hope the F-250s don’t kill any of them.

Real Estate and Construction
I’ll take it!

The urban boom of condos has put a slight stall on suburban sprawl. As Jody Flemming of the Western North Carolina Alliance says, “Let’s Pack em in”! If people like paying $250K for an 800 square foot apartment, thats fine. Less land use and the bulldozing of old buildings instead of trees is great. There are 1,000 condos about to be built right around the corner from my house where currently there are 300 run-down apartments.

Trex decks and other reusable building materials are gaining momentum. We should see a surge in these products over the next decade during the rebuilding of the Gulf Coast. Koch Industries bought Georgia-Pacific for $21 billion making it a privately held company. I wonder what kind of cards their holding close to their chest?

Americans in general will take no extra effort to make good evironmental choices. The key is to convince the companies who deliver to the masses that there is a lot of money to be made in green efforts.

I’m talking out of my element and I’m sure that there are shifts in other parts of the world (China) to counter-act these points, however; if you focus on the overwhelming damage we’ve done to the planet it is just depressing. Lets pay attention to the tiny steps that have huge implications.