Thus Spake Lance

In an essay for Salon called "Climate of Hope", former Patagonia exec Kevin Sweeney takes the Nietzchean view of climate change. By that I mean the attitude that anything which doesn't kill us only makes us stronger. Actually Sweeney doesn't invoke Herr Nietzche but rather Lance Armstrong, the All-American ubermensch. What's Lance got to do with it? Well, in Sweeney's view global warming is a lot like cancer -- a definite bummer. However, as the patient recieving the bad news, you can either choose to accept the diagnosis as a death sentence, go into denial, or face facts and do something about it. Writes Sweeney:

Lance Armstrong has said many times that getting cancer was the best thing that ever happened to him. The course of his recovery -- the changes he made in his lifestyle and training, the immediacy with which he approached decisions and tasks -- is what enabled him to win the Tour de France seven times. It made him a better cyclist and, he suggests, a better man. ... This illness -- climate change -- may do the same thing for America. It will test us, threaten us and scare us, but it may also transform us. If we deal with it seriously, we will be a stronger and better country.

American business, Sweeney says, should view the Kyoto accords as market research, evidence that the world wants a carbon-free future. If they're smart, they'll follow the old business adage and give the people what they want. If they're not, well ... somebody else will sell it to them. He calls it "Silicon Valley 2.0," but it's also Business 101.