In the past week alone, we've seen the U.N. point its finger squarely at the developed nations responsible for most of the carbon dioxide in the air, and have heard Asian leaders lash out against their region's growing reputation as pollution poster child.

Not to excuse countries like China, because it is a fast-rising contributor to global pollution and greenhouse gases, but why is that? Because we consumers in the West have an insatiable appetite for the cheap goods it pumps out. If we weren't buying all that stuff, China wouldn't be making it.

The Sudan situation and global warming's role in worsening it is stickier, so I'll leave that for now. But how's this for a solution to the Chinese goods/pollution problem: a carbon import tax imposed by the nations buying what polluted, developing countries make? The more the exporters pollute, the steeper the tax. That way, we provide developing nations with an incentive to cut emissions, and we gain a revenue stream that can be directed toward carbon mitigation or alternative energy projects.