The Top Stocks for a Warmer Earth

The Freakonomics blog recently featured two excellent posts on global warming and the threat of pandemics, and the analyses led me to several Stockpickr portfolios dealing with those issues.

The first post, by Stephen Dubner, asks How Should a Corporation Think of Global Warming? The question is not what to do about global warming. The reality is that we don't know for sure whether or not global warming is occurring; however, by the time we do find out, if the news is bad, it'll probably too late.

Dubner's blog post, which I recommend reading in its entirety, concludes with a quote from BusinessWeek columnists Jack and Suzy Welch: "Only time will tell if global warming will be minor or catastrophic; if it can be mitigated or will destroy the planet. ... But one thing is certain. Companies shouldn't wait to find out."

With that said, Stockpickr has a few portfolios that investors should be looking at now as companies begin to mitigate the fears of global warming:

• Clean Car Stocks: Whether or not it helps the environment, companies in this sector will have to develop cars using clean car technologies (fuel cells, biofuels, diesel, hybrid and so on). This portfolio includes BorgWarner(BWA Quote), a company with about 70% of its sales coming from technologies that increase fuel efficiency and reduce emissions.
• Cramer's Green Day Stocks: "There is pressure for companies to become more green", Cramer said on his April 16 "Mad Money" show. These are green stocks he picked that week. For instance, he likes Foster Wheeler(FWLT Quote) as a play on cleaning up pollution, making the bold prediction that the stock will go to $105. Foster Wheeler is "a leader in fluidized bed boilers," Cramer said. Power plants use boilers to convert coal, gas or wood into energy, and the best part about Foster Wheeler's boilers is that they're "flexible," allowing power plants to cut sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide emissions.
• Wind Power Green & Clean Stocks: Most of these companies I've never even heard of, but they're all related to the development of wind-power technologies.
• Powershares Clean Energy portfolio: This exchange-traded fund invests in companies that focus on green and renewable sources of energy and technologies that facilitate cleaner energy. Carbon fiber company Zoltek(ZOLT Quote) is on this list, along with chipmaker Applied Materials(AMAT Quote) and other pure plays such as Ballard Power Systems(BLDP Quote) and Energy Conversion Devices(ENER Quote).
• Alternative Energy Stocks: This is a list of profitable companies in the alternative-energy business, including Fuel-Tech(FTEK Quote), which is in the air-pollution-control business, and SunPower(SPWR Quote), which makes high-efficiency silicon solar cells.