I was reading that for the third or fourth year in a row, Alcoa was named by some publication as one of the most "sustainable" companies in the world. As I saw their smokestacks in the distance this morning, spewing out carbon dioxide among other pollutants, I wondered whether this is how our approach to global warming will continue to be. Will we continue to take highly polluting companies that are a large culprit in global warming (by burning lots and lots of coal for their energy, along with emitting other potent greenhouse gases), and reward them with accolades when they overall cut some emissions of climate changing pollution or plant some trees? It seems that despite the frightening findings as to global warming, we are thrilled when a company actually makes some changes as to greenhouse gas emissions. In Alcoa's case, their overall greenhouse gas emissions are lower, yet their carbon dioxide emissions from coal have gone up. In other words, overall, the emissions average out to being lower than before. I'm not saying that they shouldn't get credit for making changes, yet do they really deserve a pat on the back? Should we lose sight of the constant greenhouse gas emissions that companies like this one are still releasing each hour of every day? If this is the position we are going to take on this grim situation, our time to try to reverse some of the climate change effects will run out, if it hasn't already. What sounds good on paper--gradual changes to reduce greenhouse emissions over 10 or 20 years--are not enough when you are dealing with a company that spews out a huge amount of this pollution. We should also be cautious when companies like this one ask the President for legislation to control global warming. It does seem like a bold move, when the President, himself, doesn't want to impose greenhouse gas limits on companies. Yet, we must remember that these companies probably want a hand in dictating how this legislation will read, before someone else drafts much tougher legislation. In short, I think we should be pleased that companies like Alcoa are conceding that global warming is real and trying to make some changes in response to it, yet we must not sit back and be deterred from what needs to be done--i.e. massive reductions on these climate changing emissions in the near future.