Bright Spots in the Gloom

Dissension in the Ranks
Earlier this week when announcing the arrival of Carnival of the Green #13, I called attention to a story on the Carnival about a letter from a group of 22 notorious (infamous?) evangelical leaders to the National Association of Evangelicals asking the Association to decline to take a stand on global warming. Today we have far better news on this subject. An NYT article, Evangelical Leaders Join Global Warming Initiative, announces that an entirely different group of 86 evangelical Christian leaders has decided " to back a major initiative to fight global warming, saying 'millions of people could die in this century because of climate change, most of them our poorest global neighbors.'"

This group has signed the statement, which was presented to senators in Washington today. The statement calls for federal legislation to reduce CO2 emissions, and is the first stage of an "Evangelical Climate Initiative" which will include TV and radio spots in such states as Arkansas, Florida, Kansas, Tennessee, New Mexico, and South Dakota. The initiative will also include informational campaigns in churches, and educational events at Christian colleges. I have heard cries and whispers of coming action on climate change from evangelical Christians, and am overjoyed to finally see it taking place. Such an influential group should be able to effect a change in attitudes of their flocks that will swell the ranks of those calling for global attention to the problem.

Sweden To Set Itself Free
A hat tip to Tankwoman for linking me to this story from the UK paper, The Guardian: Sweden plans to be world's first oil-free economy . This little country intends to be free of fossil fuels for transportation and heating by the year 2020, mainly by switching to biofuels rather than nuclear power. Unfortunately, they plan to make the biofuels from the trees in their forests. Not a great idea, as, unless done with a great deal more care than in most places, chopping down the forests for fuel results in deforestation, which causes more global warming.

They have their hearts in the right place, that's for sure, saying they intend to do this because "We want to be both mentally and technically prepared for a world without oil. The plan is a response to global climate change, rising petroleum prices and warnings by some experts that the world may soon be running out of oil." Sweden's entire population is a small percentage higher than the population of New York City, and they have already switched most of their heating to a system running on steam, so the situation is very different from the prospect of weaning the United States from fossil fuel. They are, however, approaching the problem in an all-out way that we could certainly emulate if we wanted to: "The attempt ... to become the world's first practically oil-free economy is being planned by a committee of industrialists, academics, farmers, car makers, civil servants and others, who will report to parliament in several months." Imagine what we could do if we put together a brain trust like that.

A note of interest here - Brazil has already made itself fifty percent fossil-fuel free, using biofuel from sugar cane waste. It intends to power eighty percent of its transportation with biofuel within four years. Brazil. A country we tend to think of as third-world.

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