This web site offers each US City a Green Portal, blog and calendar for sharing local information about being green, becming green and sustaining green behaviours. Being green and getting in touch with what is locally available is at its core…

Look up your zip code and start sharing what your community has to offer now…

http://www.eredux.com

The “past decade” thing is purely my fault, which you’ll see if you click through that link. It should have read “11 of the warmest years on record have happened in the past 13 years,” so I updated it. Thanks for pointing that out.

As far as your opinion on global warming is concerned, you’re certainly in the minority. Sure, empirical evidence doesn’t tell the story, but the vast majority of scientists are certain that global warming is happening now. Ironically, from what I understand, such shifts in climate can even trigger a massive ice age in an amazingly short period of time. So, as to whether the term “global warming” is anything but a short-term description of how our climate is rapidly changing, I’m not certain, and from your answer, it seems you consider it to be a fad and nothing more.

My viewpoint isn’t quite as cynical as yours. It’s clear that humans have a direct impact on the environment and it’s almost certain that this will escalate dramatically as China and India develop. Everyone serious in the scientific community knows that to be true. And although not everyone seems to agree on what to do about global warming — reducing our carbon footprint with alternative forms of energy, consuming less energy, having less children, and eating less red meat are all options — there’s no arguing with the fact that we, humans, are killing the oceans.

There’s no argument about it. Overfishing is killing the oceans. Our garbage is killing the oceans. Right now, there’s an area of flotsam in the North Pacific that’s estimated to be twice the size of Texas where plastic bags and other human refuse strangle fish populations.

Meanwhile, whether or not any of us believe it to be a long-term phenomenon, global warming is changing ocean temperatures and killing some of the world’s most significant ecosystems. And even if that weren’t happening, overfishing and pollution pose just as big a threat.

Clearly, poverty is a huge concern. Food shortages are a real problem, too. So think about how many people rely on fish as a food source. 2048 isn’t that far away when you’re talking about having literally no more edible fish in the sea.

I’m not saying that companies should focus their philanthropic efforts at the oceans or other environmental causes at the expense of human causes. (Although I do think they are inherently human causes, but I digress.) I’m just pointing out that “blue marketing” is a very tangible and specific way to get involved with “green marketing” without the posturing and pretense that goes along with merely saying that your business is “green”.

The media (including blogs) has always latched on to the high-impact stories to drive up sales/viewing (there’s no such thing as news, only managed information). In the last few decades, marketers have been quicker to latch on to those sensational stories to make a profit… which increases awareness, heightening media lust for the topic… and so on.

Everyone in the 40+ age bracket will remember the global ICE AGE scare which faded away. Had it happened in the age of blogs and the anyone-can-pretend-to-be-an-expert Internet, it would have been just as big as panic as warming.

In 10 years we’ll have another planetary disaster to work with… and a marketing community positioning to make a buck on it.

Companies are spending hundreds, thousands, and millions to give the appearance of being environmentally responsible and caring, yet a child dies very three seconds because of poverty — how screwed up is that?