Green Daily

You can take this as either a silver lining to today's bleak economic situation or the cruel musings of a self-absorbed crackpot scientist -- but atmospheric researcher Paul Crutzen says that the financial meltdown of 2008 might give the environment a much-needed break. Don't shoot the messenger here, but according to Crutzen, a bear market could translate into the slower growth of carbon emissions and more careful use of energy resources.

While Crutzen's statements are sure to be unpopular, it does beg the question: are hard times easier on the environment? Considering the fact that many Americans might soon be in a state of a financial paralysis, it's easy to imagine that most of us will be burning less fossil fuels. Still, I hate to say it, but I think today's doom and gloom will be worse for the environment long-term -- because the financial crash is wreaking some very real havoc on the clean energy sector. If credit dries up, and green energy projects get put on hold, greening the economy is going to take a lot more time.

I know I'm not a Nobel prize winning scientist -- but I'm also not the guy who adovcates shooting tons of sulfur dioxide into the stratosphere to lower earth's temperature. Ahem.