Earlier this week, I mentioned some of the cool work going on at Bill Clinton's Global Initiative meeting in New York, like Brad Pitt giving away a huge chunk of change to rebuild New Orleans greenly. The summit has made a lot of other environmental strides this week as well.

It has brought together 1,200+ people from 72 countries, 52 current and former heads of state, and of course famous people and people who work for aid and charity organizations. And via Reuters, some other stats:

• People who do not make good on their commitments are not invited back. This year five people who had paid the membership fee to attend were asked not to come and had their money returned for not fulfilling their pledges, down from 17 people last year.
• During the past two years the initiative has avoided or reduced 20,070,524 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions.
• The initiative has helped 3,234,800 people gain access to clean energy services in the developing world.
• By the end of this year the initiative will have treated 34 million people for neglected tropical diseases.

And from the Los Angeles Times today, we learn that eight U.S. utility companies pledged to invest $3 billion over three years toward reducing carbon dioxide emissions by 5 million tons each a year. They reckon that's about like taking a million cars off the road.

Other pledged to invest in building schools, ending poverty, fighting disease, and conquering all manner of problems that continue to plague mankind. Thank goodness for rich, famous, do-gooder types.