The world is changing, in more ways than one

Editor's note: CNN's Hugh Riminton will be writing a daily blog on the issues throughout the week of Going Green: Search for Solutions.

(CNN) -- So much has been made of the historic nature of the U.S. presidential race.

The first African-American candidate to head a ticket. The oldest man in history to run credibly for the job. The long, close ride of the best-ever performed female candidate.

But what of this?

For the first time, whoever wins, the next American president will take office believing that human activity is heating up the planet. Nothing about Barack Obama's position would embarrass Al Gore. .

For his part, John McCain on global warming is a world away from the language and instincts of President Bush.

The debate at street level will go on. Enough global warming conspiracy theories have been unleashed to power a small reactor, let alone a world of office and dinner table arguments.

But the basic principle -- that humans are heating the planet -- is agreed at the political level.

The weight of American political energy is now in balance with the weight of opinion in science.

This matters.

As Adil Najam, one of the lead authors of the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change 2007 report, puts it "the world simply cannot address climate change without U.S. participation."

So now the good part begins; what do we do about it?

At this point, the ideas run wild, from the earnest to the utopian. Some might even work.

But which ones? And is "the world" - as a political entity -- up to the task?

It takes us decades to settle on global trade rules. We collectively wring our hands even while people are slaughtered before our cameras' eyes.

So what hope is there that we can resolve environmental questions that spread sacrifice widely for only a notional immediate advantage?

Well, let's not be discouraged.

The world's use of energy has changed far more than we sometimes acknowledge. And the great leaps come where technology meets and relieves unsustainable practice.

In 19th century London and New York, the killer pollutant was horse manure. The average working nag in New York City dropped up to 35 pounds (15.9 kilos) of the stuff a day. Efforts to sweep it all up were little help.

An 1866 New York City sanitary report observed "the stench from these accumulations of filth is intolerable." And then there was the typhoid carried by the flies that thrived on what the horses left behind.

By 1908 -- the year, coincidentally, that the first commercial oil was produced in the Middle East -- 20,000 New Yorkers were reported to die each year from "maladies...created mainly by horse manure."

Thank heaven for the car, eh?

In the century since much has changed. And much change will be forced on us in the century ahead.

New fortunes will be made where the right solutions are found.

Other livelihoods -- and lives -- will be lost where we move too slowly or fail to adapt.

This week, CNN is launching "Going Green: Search for Solutions".

It is an effort to bring together the best thinking available in the world we share.

What technologies will carry us forward? Where are the needs most pressing? How do we ensure human genius triumphs over human folly?

We'll have input and insight from across the globe from figures are diverse as presidents, scientists and activists.

This is a discussion where everyone is invited. Give us the benefit of your wisdom, your ideas, perhaps your skepticism.

What do you think? Post a comment in the Sound Off box below.

And watch us, as we grope in the dark, perhaps occasionally with flashes of insight, and as we grapple together on the great challenge and adventure of our century.