Who would’ve thunk it. Prime Minister Tony Blair and California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, meeting in Long Beach, Ca., announced this week that they’ve forged an agreement to work collaboratively against global warming. While the import of the agreement is not fully clear—and while some critics derided it as a “symbolic gesture”—it nevertheless adds momentum to a movement already underway.

The federal government may be avoiding the issue, but states, cities, municipalities, and grassroots organizations are implementing their own environmental initiatives to reduce greenhouse gas pollutants and increase renewable energy usage. Examples of such efforts include 25x'25, the 2030 Challenge, and the U.S. Mayors Climate Protection Agreement. Even Bill Clinton joined the cause this week by establishing the Clinton Climate Initiative, an organization intended to catalyze the development of green technologies and policies. All this adds up to what is increasingly becoming a mainstream trend, and we’re glad to see more folks hop aboard.

Despite these positive developments, the Nobel Prize-winning scientist Paul Crutzen is concerned that it may one day become too late to undo global warming without relying on extreme measures. Crutzen has developed a plan, which he presents in the August issue of Climatic Change, that calls for injecting sulfur into the earth’s stratosphere with high-altitude balloons or artillery guns. The atmospheric bombardment would, in theory, cool the earth because the sulfur particles would reflect sunlight back into space. While Crutzen isn’t necessarily advocating that we undertake this effort anytime soon, he is presenting it as a kind of doomsday backup plan. With all due respect to Dr. Crutzen, isn’t there an easier way? We’d optimistically like to hope, for instance, that the U.S. will one day sign on to the Kyoto Protocol.

On the subject of climate change initiatives, Toyota became the number two carmaker in the U.S. in July, outselling Ford, the previous second runner. With gas prices high, Toyota is benefiting enormously from its strategy of creating more fuel-efficient cars. Executives at G.M., the current number one automaker, no doubt have sweaty palms on the steering wheel as Toyota rapidly approaches in the rearview mirror.

We at LIME would like to commend the folks at the Los Angeles Times for an extraordinary five-part multimedia series documenting the current and very unsettling state of the world’s oceans. The articles, written by Kenneth R. Weiss and Usha Lee McFarling, began on Sunday with a feature story about primitive and often toxic organisms—bacteria, algae, jellyfish—that are on the rise in the ocean because of declining fish stocks and the effects of man-made pollution.

Subsequent coverage has focused on the effects of carbon dioxide on the ocean’s ecosystem and the glut of plastic waste that is killing birds and other sea wildlife. Reading the series—and watching the videos—will no doubt make many of us quiver at the state of our oceans, but it is precisely this kind of thorough, investigative journalism that can help raise awareness about the issue.

In health and wellness news this week, a scientist at the National Institutes of Health is researching how deep, slow breathing can lower blood pressure. The doctor exploring this issue is using a device which encourages patients to breathe more slowly. Yogis have known of the connection between respiration and peace of mind/body for thousands of years, but if it takes the NIH and a gizmo to get our society breathing slower, then so be it.