Strange bedfellows

The Sierra Club is courting auto manufacturers. Or is it the other way around? Whatever the case, automakers want to brand themselves as friends of Sierra.

Not all are on board, yet--just those with slick new hybrids that get double and in some cases quadruple the fuel economy over "obsolete" and "extinct" gas guzzlers. Sierra's message is Evolve or Die.

Timing is ideal: Gas still costs upwards of $3.00/gallon in much of the US.

Some in the German Government, long critical of US environmental policy, think the US is finally reaping what it has sown.

We entered this hurricane season with predictions of more storms than usual. We're living that prediction.

Is our easy-motoring society--where everyone drives, and the assumption is that citizens will drive, fly, or rot--responsible for global warming and, by extension, increasing numbers of hurricanes?

We may never reach consensus on this matter. But this cooperation between the Sierra Club and auto manufacturers might indicate that environmental concern is finally influencing commercial incentive.