Before the oil spill, the talk about global warming was waning in significant ways.  In Flagstaff, this was in small part due to the five foot snowstorm in January of this year, and that the [relatively] cold winter didn’t seem to want to let up.  Even so, the growing season started a little earlier than usual.  I believe the last average frost is June 14th, and our last frost this year was in late May.  I’m not exactly sure, as I cannot see the future with any measure of certainty, whether global warming, as defined by scientists, or pseudo-scientists, as some would like to call them, is a reality, but what I’d like to believe is that we could be good stewards of this planet, for better not worse.  We shouldn’t be spewing chemicals into the air, or into the water, for the sole reason that it makes the planet a miserable place to live.  I don’t know whether electric cars are a much better alternative, in part because the grid is built in large part on non-renewable energy sources.  But I’d like to believe it’s a start.  But why can we not build solar and wind collectors into vehicles?  Why can we not require all new buildings, commercial and residential, to be virtually sustainable.  We would be building the industry by requiring it.  I know why, of course.  The almighty dollar is a sickness.  And the environment has suffered from this contagion.