Coming soon to investor email and mail boxes will be annual reports and proxy voting materials, complete with this year's shareholder resolutions. Hot topics this annual meeting season include the ever popular "say-on-pay." Shareholders are incensed that average or even sub-par executive performance and decision making is being handsomely rewarded with gigantic salaries and perks while they make due with crumbs. According to a recent article in CFO Magazine, 76 shareholder proposals dealing with executive compensation have made it onto the ballot.

Also on many ballots are shareholder resolutions dealing with socially responsible investing, particularly on matters revolving around the issue of global warming and/or climate change. So far, 56 shareholder resolutions have made it onto ballots. At least nine companies have taken steps to negate the need for such shareholder resolutions by rolling out policies addressing how the companies will cut back on greenhouses emissions and otherwise "go green."

As this is a presidential election year, there are at least 50 shareholder resolutions to force companies to disclose political contributions. These resolutions probably won't gain the necessary traction to force any action, but any resolution favoring greater corporate transparency is to shareholders' advantage.

New this year are numerous resolutions requesting senior management to disclose a company's exposure to subprime mortgage losses and secondary purchases in the mortgage market. This is a hot topic among investors right now, and many pension fund investors have taken hits. Look for union members to pressure their pension funds manangers on this one.

How will you vote on these subjects?

In a report released by the World Economic Forum (WEF), the threat of a US recession placed higher than terrorism as the biggest threat to the world for 2008. "Fears of a U.S. recession coupled with a sudden spike in oil prices replaced terrorism, pandemic disease outbreaks and short-term disasters resulting from climate change as the issues global business leaders are most worried about, said the "Global Risks 2008" report." Well at least they got it right vis-a-vis climate change, or lack thereof.

There is no question that US economic growth is slowing led by the decline in housing, and the impact that slowing growth will have on the global economy as well as thestock market is an important issue. It also will play a big role in the upcoming Presidential elections. But the most important issue?

The report added, " The third major risk - dwindling food supplies - has become an issue not just for developing nations but also for rich countries," the report said, citing steep price increases for staple foods over the past year.

2007 Nobel Prize Winner and 2000 Presidential election winner Al Gore has another notch on his belt -- partner at Silicon Valley's most prestigious venture capital firm -- Kleiner Perkins. (Thanks to the Supreme Court, Gore -- who won the 2000 Presidential vote -- did not serve.)

But he handled the disappointment well. His work on the documentary An Inconvenient Truth -- easily the highest payoff PowerPoint presentation ever made -- has helped make the world aware of the threat it faces from global warming and what people can do about it. Gore insightfully points out that climate change is a matter of war and peace. It has created conflict -- the drying up of a lake in Sudan contributed to genocide there and the melting of the polar icecap has set off an international sea grab at the top of the world.

So what's the deal with Gore at Kleiner Perkins? According to the New York Times, President-elect Gore's part-time job at Kleiner will be to assess the potential of alternative energy companies and to opine on whether Kleiner Perkins should invest in them. Gore plans to donate his salary from the venture to the Alliance for Climate Protection, a nonprofit policy foundation. But he was not clear about whether he'd get the partner's share of the 2% of assets under management and 20% of the profits from successful "exits."

He was clearer about his political aspirations -- noting "I don't expect to be a candidate again."

Peter Cohan is President of Peter S. Cohan & Associates. He also teaches management at Babson College and edits The Cohan Letter.

The cover story of the current issue of Fortune, which shares a parent company, Time Warner Inc. (NYSE: TWX), with this blog, sounds the trumpets -- proclaiming that Business is back!

I've had the pleasure of working with the author of this article, Geoff Colvin, who interviewed me once on the now-defunct Wall $treet Week with Fortune in 2004. Colvin also quoted me in this article on The Home Depot Inc. (NYSE: HD). So I know I would enjoy debating him on the premise of his article which is that after six years of a lousy reputation in the wake of the dot-com collapse and Enron/WorldCom, business is now enjoying a resurgence in public opinion.

But Colvin's premise strikes me more as wishful thinking than persuasive evidence. With business magazine advertising declining -- Fortune's dropped 9.6% in the first quarter -- this advertiser-friendly article could help bring in more revenue. He bases his conclusion on three pillars: