A report of leading environmental indicators by the Pacific Research Institute and the American Enterprise Institute focuses on significant and very heartening environmental facts about our nation on this 38th Earth Day.

The U.S. remains the world's environmental leader and will likely be so in the future. Between 1997 and 2004 (the last year of available comparative data), greenhouse gas emissions from the countries that signed the Kyoto Protocol increased 21.1 percent. Emissions from the U.S. increased only 6.6 percent.

But the widespread call for the U.S. to reduce CO2 emissions by 80 percent by 2050 will create a bleak green world.

Barring revolutionary breakthroughs, Americans will have to do without hot water, refrigerators, air conditioning and flat-screen TVs, according to the report.

To achieve the arbitrary 80 percent reduction target, the U.S. per-capita emissions will have to be less than 2.5 tons (down from approximately 20 tons today). Haiti and Somalia are the only nations today that have greenhouse gas emissions that low.

By clearing the air, this report could prevent green scolds employing dubious science from denying mankind a bright future.