Another day, another neurosis about eating right and living a good life. Su Avasthi on why it ain't easy being green.

The fossil fuel behemoth formerly known as British Petroleum has been ridiculed by some environmental critics for the new name it adopted several years ago, Beyond Petroleum, given the negligible size of its alternative-energy division. But detractors can’t laugh any longer: On Tuesday, BP announced that it would funnel a whopping $8 billion of R&D funds into clean-energy innovation—eight times the $1 billion it spent in this area over the past decade.