Fighting brushfires.

• Author: Ayres, Ed
• Position: Initiatives to solve environmental problems

There are hundreds of thousands of people now engaged, like crews of volunteers battling brushfires, in the work of protecting life on Earth from the encroachments of unsustainable practices. They have achieved thousands of victories: cleaning up polluted rivers, stopping clearcuts of old-growth forests, establishing viable new solar electric industries, banning CFCs, reducing urban smog. But most of these successes are just beginnings, and in the end, they could amount to no success at all unless they can close the gap on the unsustainable practices they're intended to replace, which are also accelerating on most fronts. In the work of achieving sustainability, the scale of progress is now increasingly critical - and worrisome. When you put out a fire that has burned a hectare, you may feel a certain triumph. But what if an aerial reconnaissance shows that meanwhile, 16,000 hectares have burned somewhere nearby - and that that fire is still raging out of control? Consider these disparities:

* Solar cells are now providing environmentally benign electricity to more than 400,000 homes in the developing world. But the solar alternative still only accounts for one watt out of every four thousand watts - less than 0.0003 (or 0.03 percent) - of the world's total installed electric capacity.

* Organic farming produces high-quality vegetables that are pesticide-free. Yet according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, it accounts for less than 0.001 (or 0.1 percent) of food produced in the United States, where it has its strongest foothold.

* Environmental activists have mobilized to save scores of endangered animal and plant species. But meanwhile, according to biologists, the rate at which species are continuing to vanish exceeds natural extinction rates by 100 to 1,000 times.

Clearly, the brushfire fighters can't do the job by themselves. Until the main players of world industry and politics step forward to join them, we're in danger of continuing to lose ground even as we seem to be gaining it.

Who are those main players? They're clearly not just the heads of environmental ministries, development banks, and NGOs, most of whom remain unknown to the public. They are also those people who - for better or worse - most strongly influence how mainstream consumers and investors spend their money. I'm talking about people who already have the power to move huge amounts of capital, restructure giant industries in a short time, and shape public...