Environmentalists

Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled.

That's the fourth beatitude from the Sermon on the Mount, and it is speaking about heavenly outcomes. But it is hard not to let those words describe the general condition of environmentalists here on Mother Earth.

For decades they have been hungering and thirsting for solutions to global warming, a lone voice crying in the wilderness. It seems, finally, their call has been heard, having endured political isolation, mainstream ridicule, division and marginalization. Nobody outside the movement has yet to say publicly and gratefully, "you were right." But eating crow -- and crow are plentiful, both as a species and as metaphor -- is hardly a favorite American past-time.

Instead, America has now just clothed itself in green: in its politics (it polls well), in its business (it pays well), in its culture (it's the new chic). Thank you, environmentalists.

Everybody gets it, now, but it is still all very superficial. What's still missing is that we haven't yet really started to pay for it with the big-time solutions. And that's where the enviros -- the treehuggers -- are still making a big contribution.

They're still working hard to make sure the solutions are real. They are still hungering and thirsting at the table they have helped to set. They may have finally earned a large measure of social respect again, but they have yet to be filled.