Though small changes are important, they're not enough. Businesses need to honestly assess what their biggest climate lever is—and use it. Combating climate change at Wal-Mart for example, doesn't mean installing little windmills and solar arrays at individual stores, it means selling 100 million compact fluorescent bulbs by marking the prices down. It means changing the market for bulbs.

This is a dangerous myth because it justifies inaction. Exhibit A is the Bush administration's focus on hydrogen as a transportation fuel, a technology that is twenty years out from mainstream use, if it happens at all, and one that does nothing to solve climate change. We don't have time to pin hope on breakthroughs that may never come. We have to stop global warming with technologies that exist now.

"Greenwashing" is launching token environmentally friendly initiatives in order to conceal or distract from environmentally destructive practices— think of an auto company that places ads about its green commitment while lobbying against federal mileage standards. But greenwash can actually be good for the environment. As soon as a company starts a green hype, it invites greater scrutiny from the public, the press, and employees, creating enormous pressure to follow through.