Looking at global warming, water scarcity, increasing pollution and population, and declining natural resources, it is easy to fall into the trap of thinking that these problems are too large and intractable, no matter how much money and effort we throw at them. Stuart Hall's Capitalism at the Crossroads: Aligning Business, Earth and Humanity, with a foreword by recent Noble Peace Prize recipient Al Gore, provides reason for cautious optimism. Just as concentrated human creativity and large-scale changes in behavior helped address holes in the ozone layer, so Hall provides a framework for how multinational corporations, not governments, can lead the efforts to guild a "sustainable global network," each word being equally important.

Hall is well known for his efforts to help businesses develop products and policies to serve the needs of the 4 billion people in the world who live at "the base of the pyramid." Rather than think of the 80% of the global population who live in the developing world as "the poor," Hall provides numerous examples of how businesses can use the developing world as a lab to develop clean technologies using sustainable practices, then scale those results up to the middle of the pyramid.

Now that "going green" has entered mainstream corporate thinking. Hall offers us plans to move "beyond green." It is not enough for the developed world merely to moderate its carbon footprint. We must rethink how we use the world's natural rsources to meet our needs in ways that do not make it impossible for future generations to meet theirs. Investors will want to read this book to learn which companies are on the leading edge of developing profitable sustainable technologies to create long-term value for the triple bottom line: social, environmental and economic.

Overnight, a barrel of crude hit $86.79 on the New York Mercantile Exchange, according to MarketWatch. The news site says, "Among the bigger news items impacting oil, Turkey's government asked parliament late Monday to approve a cross-border offensive against Kurdish rebels in Iraq."

But it now appears that almost any excuse will move oil up.

And this is not the end of it. OPEC is only lifting production by 2% in November, while Chinese demand for imported oil rose 18% in the first eight months of this year. Turmoil in areas where oil is produced is growing. Nigeria and Venezuela are not considered stable. It will not take much of another "little war" in the Middle East to move crude higher. The only good news is that hurricane season is winding down and production interruptions in the Gulf of Mexico are less likely.

With a tip of the hat to Al Gore, the rotund champion of the environment, former Vice President, and current Nobel winner, big economies are still their own worst enemies in the arena of energy consumption. There is no reason to believe that supply can keep up long-term, and OPEC sees no reason to help out. Higher oil prices are an excellent money-making proposition.

Oil is moving higher. There are too few forces to move it down. And, with winter setting in around the Northern Hemisphere, a bit of oil is going to be needed to keep us warm.

Douglas A. McIntyre is a partner at 24/7 Wall St.

There's a bold flag flying above the solar energy camp, and I like the dialog coming from at least one of the men raising that flag. T. J. Rodgers, CEO of Cypress Semiconductor Corp. (NYSE: CY), laid it on the line recently when he stated his opinion regarding CEOs like General Electric's (NYSE: GE) Jeff Immelt, Wal-Mart's (NYSE: WMT) Lee Scott, and Peter Darbee of PG&E. Rodgers was quoted by CNN Money as saying, "Every one of the names you just mentioned would flunk his ass in the most rudimentary test about global warming."

It's not necessarily that I agree with what Rodgers said, but any man who has stuck with a viable manufacturing concept for as long as Rodgers has stuck with the truth of solar electrical generation, and then has the gumption to call into question the motives of his peers in pursuing a similar path, gets a nod of respect from me. It's not about what he said, it's about why he said it.

Congratulations to former Vice President (and woulda-coulda-shoulda president) Al Gore on receiving half of the Nobel Peace Prize this week for his strident work in the area of global warming. The news added fuel to the fire that Gore might insert his name on the long list of presidential candidates, even this late in the game.

If he enters the race, he would do so challenging Democratic front runner Hillary Clinton for the nomination, after serving as vice president under her partner and currently greatest supporter President Bill Clinton. Can you hear the backroom politics going into full swing at this very moment? No doubt there are phone lines on fire in Washington, New York, and California as I type.

Hillary wants to be president so bad she can taste it. If not for her ambition, Mr. Clinton might have been lodging with some foreign legion in a remote part of the world many years ago. Gore does muddy things up a bit for a lot of hopeful folks. If he ran it would add a lot of excitement to what is getting to be a more and more boring presidential campaign. Meanwhile after winning the "Prize," Gore passes Obama for Democratic nomination. Another twist if Gore runs (50/50 odds) is that polls still show him as a long shot to receive the nomination over Clinton. Perhaps Barrack Obama and Gore joining forces (a Gore/Obama ticket) might make some advances if they announced early -- but this would burn some bridges neither wants to burn.

At a forum in Singapore, former Vice President Al Gore pointed his finger towards oil giant Exxon Mobil Corp. (NYSE: XOM) as being a part of a group of pollution-emitting companies guilty of spreading misinformation worldwide over the issue of global warming.

According to Gore, there is an organized campaign that receives roughly $10 million a year to spread misinformation in order to cast doubt as to whether or not global warming is a problem in today's world. The secret benefactors behind this campaign? According to Gore the money can be traced back to the biggest polluters in the world, and he then went so far as to call out Exxon by name.

The argument over global warming is definitely still a sensitive subject for many of us. Personally, I have no doubt in my mind that the world is warming, so I apologize if this story is slanted towards my bias, but to me, the world just seems a lot warmer then when I was a kid. But for every person who thinks like me, there is another person that will swear that nothing is changing and its just liberal whining with no science behind it.

I had a notion once to start a guerrilla marketing company, offering to destroy competing brands by dressing the ugliest, most loathsome people I could find in that competing brand's product.

Now, I don't mean to suggest that Dean Cain (Superboy) or G.W. Bush (Superpresidenter guy) fall into that category, but Crocs Inc. (NASDAQ: CROX) has to be a little concerned when the brand shows up on C-list actors and unpopular politicians.

This caused me to jot down a list of Crocs-killers -- people who, by adopting the footwear, could trash the brand. In no particular order --

• Kim Il Jong
• Larry King
• Ziggy
• Mike Tyson
• Osama bin Laden (only in U.S., however)
• Draco Malfoy
• Joan Rivers
• Al Gore
• Tom Barlow (if you knew me, you'd understand.)

There's a reason trendy nightclubs have doormen to weed out us dweebs. Perhaps Crocs should consider the same.

Former President (and potential First Man) Bill Clinton is taking another stab at authorship. Possibly following the humanitarian lead of his former right-hand man, Al Gore, the former commander in chief is publishing a book on citizen activism, titled Giving: How Each of Us Can Change the World.

The book will be released on September 4, according to Knopf Publish Group (a division of Random House ... which is a unit of the privately held Bertelsmann AG). The initial print run will total 750,000 copies.

In an accompanying quote, the sax-wielding democrat noted that his observations of workers' devotion to various charitable organizations around the world have proven to him that "almost everyone -- regardless of income, available time, age and skills -- can do something useful for others and, in the process, strengthen the fabric of our shared humanity."

Clinton already has a good track record in the nation's bookstores. His 2004 memoir, My Life, was a leading seller for Knopf; the 957-page book sold more than 2 million copies in the U.S. alone and was printed in more than 30 countries. According to The Washington Post, it managed a fist-day nonfiction sales record of 400,000 copies.

Beth Gaston Moon is an analyst at Schaeffer's Investment Research.

As comedians, personalities, and musicians worldwide joined together to promote the cause of environmental awareness, interested viewers took to their computers, collectively generating more than 9 million internet streams, according to Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT)'s MSN service.

The previous record was set in 2005 during Live 8 - another philanthropic concert aimed to fight global poverty. "We have exceeded any other online entertainment event," MSN's product manager noted in a Reuters piece. "It's really exciting to see the enthusiasm for the concert."

Color me a cynic, but I have a hard time feeling the sincerity in Steve Jobs' promise to make Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) a more environmentally friendly business, with initiatives like eliminating certain toxic substances from its products and promoting recycling. Jobs issued a five-page memo discussing the new, greener Apple.

If this announcement had come a year ago, in a time when Apple wasn't in the midst of an options-backdating scandal with accusations flying all the way up to Mr. Jobs, I'd applaud the company's efforts. In a way, I still do. But it also seems like a diversionary tactic to draw attention away from governance scandals surrounding the company.

Portfolio.com wrote that, "As Home Depot and Wal-Mart have recently discovered, announcing green initiatives in the face of bad news is a great way to divert media attention from things like $100 million CEO pay packages and ongoing battles over worker wages and benefits."

The magazine also points out that Al Gore's presence on the board of directors may have contributed to the decision, although Gore recently backed the board in opposing shareholder proposals that would have called for more stringent environmental standards at the company.

At a National Association of Pension Funds conference in Edinburgh, former Vice President Al Gore warned of the dangers of having a short-term outlook in investing. He actually sounds a bit like Warren Buffett in some of his remarks. To wit:

"If you want management according to long-term horizons but you incentivise on a quarterly basis, will you be surprised if performance is maximised on a quarterly basis and if there is a tension between meeting targets and long-term objectives?''

"Eighty per cent of a firm's value builds up over a business cycle and a half, so if you are buying equities then selling them a few months later, clearly the aim is not to participate in the build-up of value."

While Mr. Gore certainly makes some good points about the importance of keeping the focus long-term, I came across another way of looking at in a book called The Best Investment Advice I Ever Received. Author Roger McNamee writes: "You should view the long term as a consistently infinite series of short terms. You cannot be successful in the long run without being successful most of the time in the short run."'

Oftentimes, the pursuit of short-term profits is also best accomplished through short-term results, including selling off assets or similar strategies advocated by much-maligned "corporate raiders" like Carl Icahn, who said that "We're not about liquidating companies, but if you do that, why is that terrible? We're not blowing up the factories. The person who buys it should be able to make the asset more productive."

While investors should certainly focus on buying and holding equities for the long-term, as Al Gore suggested, I think that an emphasis on short-term results can often be positive for companies themselves. A company that generates value in the short run is well on its way to strong long term results.

This morning's Wall Street Journal, the one shaped like a Holiday Inn bath towel (I'll call it the Towel), breached the separation between the news and editorial pages by keeping the biggest news story of the day off of its front page. The Towel should have plastered the front page with a deep analysis of the wide ranging implications of Apple Computer, Inc.'s (NASDAQ: AAPL) iPhone. But I think the editorial page editors' rage at Al Gore and Steve Jobs kept that from happening.

To be fair, the Towel did have many stories about the iPhone. Apple Storms Cellphone Field [subscription required] graced page A3. Apple Shines Tech Shares As Stocks Sag led on page C1; Apple May Justify Hype trailed on C14; and Apple's iPhone: Is It Worth It? filled out much of page D1. This is quite a bit of coverage for Apple -- but I can't imagine why it decided to lead with a story on how Towel publisher, Dow Jones & Company Inc.'s (NYSE: DJ) competitors are trying to sell national advertisements through a joint venture with Yahoo, Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO).

These stories are besides the point. The real action in the Apple coverage is on the Towel's editorial page. Apple's Gore was Holman Jenkins's pointless rumination on his internal conflicts about the success of Apple's business, his unspoken frustration about how Democrats Al Gore and Steve Jobs are benefiting from it, and his angst that the backdating scandal -- which he feels is much ado about nothing -- has left Jobs unscathed. And Should Steve Jobs Go To Jail? hints that just as Jobs got off for backdating, so should the authors' client, Brocade Communications Systems Inc.'s (NASDAQ: BRCD) former CEO, Gregory Reyes.

The irony of this is that publisher, Gordon Crovitz, recently crowed about how Towel reporters uncovered the backdating scandal last year. But I guess the Towel couldn't decide how to handle all the internal conflict created by Apple's iPhone announcement. As a result, the Towel's dirty laundry kept it from plastering the front page with what could turn out to be one of the biggest business stories of 2007.

Peter Cohan is President of Peter S. Cohan & Associates, a management consulting and venture capital firm, and a Professor of Management at Babson College. He subscribes to the Wall Street Journal but doesn't have any financial interest in Apple, Brocade, Dow Jones, or Yahoo.

Following on Brian White's coverage last week of Al Gore's pending visit to Wal-Mart HQ today on the topic of Global Warming is an AP article on some of Wal-Mart's recent eco-friendly efforts.

Wal-Mart's official estimate of the amount of carbon dioxide it emits was roughly 20.8 million metric tons. To put that in perspective, Coca-Cola emits about 5 million metric tons and American Electric Power emits around 160 million metric tons.

Wal-Mart has been the target of various environmental groups for it eco-practices or lack thereof.

Ahead of Al Gore's visit today on his Anti-Global Warming campaign, Wal-mart officials have been clamoring to highlight results they have achieved since CEO Lee Scott launched the official Wal-Mart "good steward for the environment" campaign last October as well as initiatives the company plans on launching.

What would Al Gore be doing in Bentonville soon, according to blog posts and reports? Well, he would be there to talk with Wal-Mart executives about global issues such as environmental sustainability and ensuring Wal-Mart knows the best methods to minimize its negative impact on the environment through any and all channels possible.

With Wal-Mart CEO Lee Scott recently saying that Wal-Mart is deeply committed to greening up the company though all kinds of methods, they definitely can take some insight from An Inconvenient Truth movie maker and recent presidential candidate Al Gore.

Although there are some that believe Wal-Mart's green attitude and initiatives are nothing more than window dressing or are geared to save the company money rather than assist the sustainability of the global environment, Wal-Mart's efforts at least should heed ears from all sides.