A year for saving our environment

In fact, nothing is more important for the Earth's future than saving its environment from humans. And probably nothing is more difficult to achieve. As for the charge that global warming is science fiction, the fact that delegates from nearly 190 countries met in Bali last month to confront climate change should silence the skeptics. If the governments of virtually every country in the world can't agree exactly what to do about this crisis, they at least concur that it exists and demands urgent, comprehensive action.

No wonder. In 2007, a series of landmark reports from the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warned of catastrophic consequences including devastating floods, droughts, severe weather and species extinction on massive levels unless there are sharp cutbacks in greenhouse gas emissions.