Yahoo! Turns Green

Yahoo! just launched two initiatives in an effort to establish their position as a major resource for Web 2.0 environmental leadership. The major component of this initiative has been dubbed Yahoo! Green, an information portal to deal with global warming issues, environmental news, information and help guides for people to live a more environmentally conscious life.

The new Yahoo! Green initiative launch is being accompanied by the very first competition to find the most eco-friendly city in America called Be a Better Planet. The city that wins will receive a fleet of hybrid taxis and carbon credits. According to Josh Catone of ReadWriteWeb, Yahoo! appears to be putting their money where their mouth is by pledging to become carbon neutral by the end of 2007. This is a monumental feat for a company with over 11,000 employees to accomplish in such a short time.

It's Time! My run through of the Yahoo! Green revealed a genuine and simple graphic for people to follow in order to become more eco-friendly in their homes. According to the statistics on site the average American generates 9.44 tons of CO2/yr currently. I thought it significant also that Yahoo! chose advertising for a hybrid SUV for the "Take Action" section. Also significant is a quote from the late great Carl Sagan who predicted global issues of monumental proportions during his career and before his death.

"The universe is not required to be in perfect harmony with human ambition." Carl Sagan

My readers know my position well on green issues and I have always hoped that Web 2.0 would become the platform for world change and education its potential indicated. More purpose for Web 2.0 and all of us involved is what we should all be centered around. Yahoo! stock just went up in my portfolio 10 times, and this old work horse of the Internet has constituently professed changing the world as one of its goals.

Look and See

Not wanting to advocate or incite alarm, I will tentatively encourage every associated with Web 2.0 to learn more about the hazards and dangers facing us in the coming decades. We should all become more proactive in learning what other people intend for us and out planet. Of some interest to me (and all of us) is another call to action by the Union of Concerned Scientists, in where it is apparent that the investors running the energy (and CO2) producing show intend to build an additional 150 coal fired power plants. If completed these plants would raise the level of greenhouse gasses produced by the electrical sector by 25 percent over even 2004 levels.

Regardless of what Yahoo! and other companies do or don't do, it is incumbent on individuals to express their concern and exert their right to a say in what happens to our planet. For my part, I wish most people would either stand up or get out of the way. Continuing to argue the unarguable with regard to whether or not we are harming the planet now borders on the ludicrous. At least Yahoo! is going though the motions, what about the rest of us Web 2.0?

Simple things we can do at home.