1. De-emphasis on fossil fuels so that we have another way to keep the lights on, preferably one that is renewable.

2. Reduced dependency on oil purchased from some of the less stable regions of the world, and thereby not funding some of the less popular regimes in the world.

3. Reduction of environmental impact of less controversial nature, such as smog, oil spills,etc.

4.A dent made in the income figures of the major oil companies, unless they are the ones who make the aforementioned advances.

The thing I still fail to understand is the downside of the Global Warming theory. Even if it is proved to be total bunk, the steps proposed that we take to avoid it would all have positive impact in other areas. The only reasons I can come up with for people to fight the idea with the vitriol used are:

A) We make our money on oil, so stop talking about things that would make us lose money, and

B) Al Gore said it, and Al Gore has to be WRONG.

So if Humanity-induced global warming turns out to be a complete mistake and all of the proposed steps to combat it are carried out, then the world is still a better place for it. So what, exactly, is the problem?