Finally! The US joins in with the rest of the G8 countries by signing a nonbinding environmental treaty—Who-hoo! I hear the collective cry. British Prime minister, Gordon Brown calls it "major progress," but as with most nonbinding contracts the agreement seems to me to be little more than a collection of hot air. Sure, on the surface it means well, and at last Mr. Bush has finally crashed the 'stop global warming' party, albeit a little late.

It's ironic really, when you consider he dismissed Kyoto in 1997. He did state this time around, however, that he felt that the emerging economies of the world—China, India, Brazil—also need to be held accountable for not churning out as much pollution and of course they in turn they said that the cutbacks proposed by the G8 leaders were not enough. Here we go again.

Friends of the Earth's international climate campaigner, Tom Picken, accused the G8 leaders of an "elaborate smokescreen" to try to fool the world that they were showing international leadership on global warming.

"Setting a vague target for 42 years' time is utterly ineffectual in the fact of the global catastrophe we all face. Urgent action is needed to tackle climate change and spiralling energy prices caused by our addiction to increasingly expensive and insecure fossil fuels."

Realistically though, I think it is the gas prices that will create the climate for change, with pump prices going up daily, it will be the simple economics of demand that will force Americans to trade in their love of gas guzzling trucks, cars and SUV's for the smaller more economical cars that have been in production in Europe and Japan since the 1970's, or if you like oil crisis 1.0.

With GM and Ford haemorrhaging cash on all fronts and Toyota Prius kicking Motor City's butt, it will be in Detroit's survival interests to adapt auto design to include a more efficient use of fuel which will inherently produce less pollution.

The apparent near-death of American suburbia, as we know it, which thrived on the concept of open space, far from inner-city crime and grime, is becoming a nostalgic memory at best. The days of commutes of between 40-100 miles a day were, and are not uncommon, meaning the cost of getting to work is forcing cash strapped citizens to adjust their priorities, along with the obligatory cursing at the pump.

The fortunate by-product of the financial squeeze is the demise of the SUV. Advantage Mother Earth. The less desirable has been the inevitable collapse in the once rampant housing industry, which is creating ghost towns across a continent, forcing many Americans to rethink it's ideal of the great American Dream which is, for most, rapidly turning more of an American Nightmare. Many people are selling—or at least trying to—sell their fossil fuel-burning monsters and looking at different travel options, Often though the options are slim to none in the communities built around the mobility of the automobile, leaving the shopping-mall and urban sprawl behind in the dust.

Mass transit, such as Greyhound, and regional rail, once ridiculed and looked-down upon by most commuters, have seen a dramatic 20-30 percent spike increase in commuters just in the last seven months. Meanwhile back at the drawing board in Detroit, GM is apparently looking to off-load it's once popular macho Hummer division and is betting on the Chevy Volt to come to the company's financial rescue. The Volt, a mini-sized hybrid, may just be a little too late as talks of bankruptcy are being uttered on the street, with the company's stock falling to about $10 and change, a 54-year low.

The cultural shift and behavior changes made by consumers will force Detroit to accept that the 'good old days' are fianlly long gone, along with the extended fins and massive carbon footprints. The warning during the Carter administration, over 30 years ago, went virtually unheeded by the car buying public in the US, and now we're all paying that cost, plus interest.

Looking on the bright side, maybe the G8 emissons agreement will be a moot point by the time 2050 rolls around, as the airlines and auto industry frantically look to find viable economic alternatives that meet the needs of citizens around the world and in turn produce less carbon emissions, let's hope so.

It's time to sell the Hummer Arnold, if you still can.