With Congress taking the subject up more than 75 times this year, more venture capitalists willing to invest in green technologies, and millions of viewers watching Live Earth, “it seems like the world is getting downright giddy about stopping global warming,” says Mindy Lubber on WorldChanging.

Unfortunately, awareness doesn’t mean action. When three top power CEOs presented their expectations on climate change last month, Lubber compared their predictions with those of NASA scientist James Hansen, who has repeatedly warned that problems are worse than we tend to think.

Hansen says dramatic change is needed within the next 10 years. However, this is not in line with what power companies expect to do. Bruce Braine of American Electric Power said that real substantial carbon reductions will not occur before 2020. Exelon CFO John Young said that green energy will be far more expensive than what Congress wants to support. On a more positive note, PG&E in California will spend $1 billion on energy savings programs by 2008, including a plan to install smart meters with which consumers can lower their energy use.