In the Tuesday elections, the Democrats won control of the House and the Senate, spelling good tidings for the environment. With occasional exceptions amongst the Republicans (like now-ousted moderate Lincoln Chafee), the Dems are traditionally much better stewards of halcyon skies, amber waves of grain, and purple mountain majesties. Speaker of the House-to-be Nancy Pelosi is on the record as supporting global-warming legislation.

One might say that the election was a referendum on Bush policies and bush policies, as in California, where incumbent and House Resources Committee Chairman Richard Pombo, a Republican who sought to weaken the Endangered Species Act and relentlessly advocated for oil and gas drilling, was defeated by Jerry McNerney, a Democratic challenger with a background in wind energy but no legislative experience whatsoever.

A sampling of key election results:

• Washington voters approved Initiative 937, which mandates utilities to generate 15 percent of their power from renewable sources such as wind, solar, or biomass (hydropower doesn't count, unless existing systems are being upgraded).
  

• Voters in California rejected Proposition 87, an initiative that would have taxed oil production to fund renewable energy research; but the election results (55 percent against, 45 percent in favor) seemed to suggest that alternative energy has gained a foothold in the popular imagination.

Folks across the pond were also encouraged by the election results, with delegates at the ongoing United Nations climate-change conference in Nairobi hoping that the Bush administration might be more amenable in its global warming policies.

But in future years, the country that will arguably have more of an impact on global warming is China. This was evident in a sobering report published by the International Energy Agency, which concluded that China's greenhouse gas emissions will surpass the U.S.'s in 2009, a full decade earlier than other predictions had estimated. When you consider that China is nowhere near finished with its process of industrialization, this is an alarming forecast indeed. Because of burgeoning energy demand, the agency warned of a looming "energy crisis," and recommended that governments across the world encourage conservation and invest in renewable energies as well as nuclear power.

We at LIME have faith that ingenuity will show the way forward. Whether it's microgeneration technology for the home, or energy-efficient lightbulbs, or solar panels that require less silicon, we'll be able to be more green if we have the technology to do so. The latest leap in that direction: The SAX-40, a plane prototype developed by researchers at MIT and Cambridge University in collaboration with companies such as Boeing and Rolls-Royce. This airliner would not only be less noisy than a modern plane, it would be far more fuel efficient, getting 124 "passenger miles" per gallon of fuel, compared to 120 passenger miles for a Toyota Prius carrying two people.

Proof that affluent societies are rounder in addition to being more prolific GHG polluters: In China, the country's state media reported that 60 million people in the country are now obese, which has led to a proliferation of weight-related health problems. Here in the U.S., new research revealed that potbellies are becoming more prevalent in children, with "abdominal obesity" increasing by 65 percent among boys and 70 percent among girls during the period from 1988 to 2004.

In case any of this week's news raises your blood pressure, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer offers a story about the growing popularity of handheld biofeedback devices that allow users to become calm and lower stress levels. If you're interested in using this 21st-century technology to lower your own cortisol levels in times of tribulation, reporter Cecelia Goodnow writes a helpful review of products and software currently on the market.

The old cliché goes that a single vote can make a difference in the electoral process; however well-worn it might be, the maxim applies to environmental problems. In this vein, we should heed Nobel Prize-winning eco-activist Wangari Maathai, who called this week for a grassroots, global tree-planting campaign of a billion leafy greens. The news seems a fitting reminder of the tangible steps that each of us can take to nurture a better environment (which you can also do during the upcoming holiday season with the help of LIME's gift-giving guide). As Maathai reminds us, a tree makes a splendid gift for this generation, and future ones.