Ethanol tops U.S.-Brazil talks

"President Bush and Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on Saturday discussed globalwarming, ethanol and trade, as well as poverty, hunger, disease and peace in the Middle East, the leaders said.

Lula da Silva was a guest at Camp David in Maryland. It was Bush's second meeting with the Brazilian leader in less than a month. They met three weeks ago when Bush stopped in Sao Paulo during his five-nation tour of Latin America.

At the top of Saturday's agenda was ethanol.

"For me, the biofuel issue is almost like an obsession," Lula da Silva told reporters through an interpreter.

During the past four years, Brazil has been able to reduce the deforestation of the Amazon rainforest by 52 percent, saving some 2 million hectares (5 million acres), he said. Through the use of ethanol, carbon gas emissions have been reduced by some 400 million tons.

"Either we take care of planet Earth very carefully ... or we regret that in the future," Lula da Silva said."

Source: CNN.com

We all have a lot to learn from Brazil when it comes to ethanol. I read somewhere that about 95% of all new cars sold in Brazil are fueled by ethanol. The perhaps most dominant brand of cars is Ford with its Flexifuel system. Most of Brazil's ethanol comes from sugar canes, of which the rest product is used as furtilizer. Therefore nothing is wasted.

US supreme court overrules Bush's refusal to restrict C02

"The US supreme court yesterday issued a landmark ruling in favour of environmentalists and against George Bush's stance on globalwarming. The court judged that the federal Environmental Protection Agency had the power through a clean air law to restrict exhaust emissions, and told the agency to re-examine the issue.
The ruling was in response to a lawsuit filed by 12 states and 13 environmental groups frustrated with the Bush administration's lack of action. Individual states, led by California, have been imposing regulations of their own. Car makers, public utilities, and others responsible for carbon dioxide emissions opposed the lawsuit. The decision opens the way for a new president in 2009 to curb emissions - all the Democratic and Republican candidates have made climate change a major part of their platforms."

Source: The Guardian

Is it only me, or do more people like to read how George W. Bush is overruled? It's time for Bush to join the real world, instead of sticking to his own where it's apparently ok to not sign the Kyoto treaty and other agreements in favour of the environment. To see how his own (partly) appointed Supreme court overrules him is a delight!

Power station emissions soar

"Carbon emissions from UK power stations have increased by nearly 30% over the past eight years, putting the government's climate change targets under threat, a report showed today.

The report, compiled for environmental group WWF, shows that in 2006 alone emissions rose by 6% to reach 178m tonnes, as high gas prices led to an increased use of coal to produce electricity.

The power sector's emissions have now reached the highest level since 1992, cancelling out all of the gains from the so-called "dash for gas", which saw emissions fall from 201m tonnes in 1990 to 139m in 1999, the report said."

Source: The Guardian

Who in their right mind use coal to produce electricity? Don't they see the connection between the use of coal and high emissions of carbon dioxide? Idiots!!!

Fighting for air: frontline of war on globalwarming

"In the most polluted city on earth, the smog is so thick that it seems to consume its source. Iron foundries, smelting plants and cement factories loom out of the haze then disappear once more as you drive along Linfen's roads. The outlines of smoke stacks blur in the filthy mist. No sooner are the plumes of carbon and sulphur belched out than the chimneys are swallowed up again."

"The effects have been dramatic. By 2009 China is predicted to overtake the United States as the world's biggest emitter of greenhouse gases. India has recently become the fourth biggest polluter, but its steeply rising emissions will see it in third place within a few years.

China's three decades of industrial blitzkrieg has extracted a heavy price. Seventy percent of its rivers are contaminated. In the southern Himalayas, ancient glaciers are melting. Further north, encroaching deserts threaten the livelihoods of 400 million people."

Source: The Guardian

The sad effects of progress. You'd wish that these up and coming countries, like China and India, would try to take advantage of what the western world has already experienced, in order to save their environment. However, what is happening right now, in especially China, might very well be the beginning of the end of the world as we've known it. They still have a chance to do something about it, but time is running out, and fast. Globalwarming is not a myth, it's fact. We need to be aware of our actions. Awareness2007 is essential as a start.

Does smoking cause globalwarming?

In the spirit of globalwarming awareness2007 I have to ask the question, don't you agree? Smokers spew out their smoke all the time. Millions of them, hundreds of millions of smokers world wide. Every day, every minute, every second. What's in that smoke? Carbon dioxide most likely, the same carbon dioxide we blame the auto industry for. Shouldn't we start paying attention to the tobacco industry as well?

Sure, we already blame them for such things as lung cancer and second hand smoke, but what about their obvious part in polluting the planet?

I welcome any thoughts on the matter!!!