What was unthinkable just a few years ago has occurred. General Motors, long one of the largest and most powerful corporations in the world, pleaded its case to the federal government for an infusion of cash as part of the recent government bailout of distressed financial institutions.

How could a deeply-rooted company that employs 266,000 people world wide see its stock fall to the price of a cup of coffee? The same way many other prominent American institutions find themselves here: by not considering the long term economic consequences of their environmental impact.

For years, record-setting and almost gratuitous levels of consumption were the American norm. SUVs got longer, wider, and less fuel efficient, and easy credit helped park them in driveways across America. While consumer behavior brought in the dollars, it was decision at the highest levels of industry that enabled the trend. Statements like Bob Lutz's now-derided aphorism that hybrids like the Toyota Prius "make no economic sense" summed up the attitude of the boom: "we're not eco-friendly, but we're making lots of money. How could we possibly be wrong?"

While it would take a combined credit contraction and spike in oil prices to drive GM to its currently teetering brink, it should have been obvious that the record booms of the 1990's had uneven balance sheets. Gas prices at record low real values should have sounded alarms, while thickening hazes over American cities and a string of the warmest years on record should have indicated that there were serious environmental costs accruing in the background. However, GM's Lutz continued to deny any connection, and the emphasis remained on the next quarter's bottom line.

Now that the dam has broken, the effects of excess are plainly obvious: $28 billion lost to poor air quality in the state of California alone. An aging and congested highway transport system in constant need of repair. Sprawling, unsustainable suburbs slowly turning to ghost towns. These and many other devastating economic impacts sprung wholly or in part from the inability to assess the impact of environmental damage on corporate ledgers.

Though the damage has already been done, like the larger simultaneous credit crisis, it's unlikely it will prove fatal. GM, due to the significant economic repercussions of its failure, will likely receive government support. Hopefully, the company will go on to revolutionize the American auto industry with the much-anticipated Chevy Volt. The best thing the governments and corporations of the world can do now is to remember the fallout from these previous mistakes and keep vigilant about properly assessing and mitigating the environmental impacts.