It is now official; global warming is real. When I write "official" I don't mean that scientists have finally agreed. By official, I mean President George W. Bush has finally, and one might note grudgingly, admitted that global warming is fact.

The grudgingly part is because for a long time the president would not admit to the evidence and now doesn't want to engage in any analysis of why global warming has happened, even though scientific data points squarely to human activities. The president's take: ". . . we need to set aside whether or not greenhouse gases have been caused by mankind or because of natural effects and focus on the technologies that will enable us to live better lives and at the same time protect the environment."

The idea that the problem can be ameliorated (it can't be fixed) without understanding the causes is as naive as trying to cure a chest pain but not checking to see whether the patient is having a heart attack.

So what are the causes of global warming? The top culprit is the burning of fossil fuels, which increase the atmospheric concentration of greenhouse gases.

What are we doing about the problem? Katherine Ellison writing in The New York Times on May 20 commented:

"Scientists have long been warning that the world must cut back on greenhouse gas emissions by as much as 70%, as soon as possible, if we're to have a fighting chance of stabilizing the climate. Yet even with full participation by the United States, the controversial Kyoto Protocol, the only global plan in the works, would hardly begin to do that. Its goal is to reduce emissions by 5.2% below 1990 levels by 2012. And so far, the best plan offered by American politicians - the Climate Stewardship act sponsored by Senators John McCain (R.-Ariz.) and Joseph Lieberman (D.-Conn.) - has an even more modest goal: It aims to cut emissions in the United States merely to 2000 levels by 2010. And the Senate has rejected it twice."

But this state of affairs can't last, and now that the president is on board we can expect that over the next few years the way we run our businesses will have to change.

To reduce emissions we have to burn less fuel, which requires that we reduce our consumption. When it comes to electrical power we will have to use less, which in turn will probably require higher electricity prices to enforce reductions. The average national price of electricity in February was 8.42 cents per kilowatt hour. What will it mean to your enterprise if the price becomes 16 cents or even 32 cents?