If you are going to try and make a difference, why not start at the top. And while all presidents and presidential elections anywhere in the world are apt arenas for influencing the course of the climate crisis, there is perhaps no arena as critical at the present time than the presidential election in the United States. We have avoided writing pages on the ClimateCorps that are so time dependent as to require fixing in less than a year's time, but this is an obvious exception.

The US presidential election of 2008 is perhaps the most critical one ever in the course of the world's sustainability future. The 'fraying at the edges' of the web of life has become obvious. The prior presidential election has been an absolute failure in terms of wise stewardship of the nation, let alone the planet. We must recover from completely counterproductive efforts to condone and encourage polluting and destructive practices in the pursuit of profits. It will fall to the next president of the United States to set things right.

The single most important thing you can do in the run up to the US Presidential election of 2008 is contained on our page Reframe the Debate. So make a commitment to read that page and rise to the occasion.

All of the current candidates and contenders are orders of magnitude 'better for the planet' than the current (Bush) administration. But let's present to you a brief, balanced glimpse of what they say about themselves and a Grist summary of they stand for on what is for us the 'mother-nature of all issues', climate change and energy policy.

• John McCain's campaign on climate change and the environment.
• Grist on McCain's environmenalism.
• Hillary Clinton's campaign on the climate change and the environment.
• Grist on Clinton's environmentalism.
• Barack Obama's campaign on the climate change and the environment.
• Grist on Obama's environmentalism.