Countries on every corner of this Earth now recognize that energy supplies are growing scarcer, energy demands are growing larger, and rising energy use imperils the planet we will leave to future generations. And that’s why the world is now engaged in a peaceful competition to determine the technologies that will power the 21st century. From China to India, from Japan to Germany, nations everywhere are racing to develop new ways to producing and use energy. The nation that wins this competition will be the nation that leads the global economy. I am convinced of that. And I want America to be that nation. It’s that simple.

The Recovery Act includes $80 billion to put tens of thousands of Americans to work developing new battery technologies for hybrid vehicles; modernizing the electric grid; making our homes and businesses more energy efficient; doubling our capacity to generate renewable electricity. Also, The EPA:Greenhouse Gases Imperil Health, E.P.A. Announces

By JOHN M. BRODER, NY Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/08/science/earth/08epa.html?hpw

WASHINGTON — The Environmental Protection Agency on Monday issued a final ruling that greenhouse gases posed a danger to human health and the environment, paving the way for regulation of carbon dioxide emissions from vehicles, power plants, factories, refineries and other major sources.

For The Flat Earth Folks: Several Republicans in Congress had asked the E.P.A. to delay the so-called endangerment finding because of questions about the underlying science. Ms. Jackson rejected their plea.

“We know that skeptics have and will continue to try to sow doubts about the science,” she said. “It’s no wonder that many people are confused. But raising doubts — even in the face of overwhelming evidence — is a tactic that has been used by defenders of the status quo for years.”

She said that the agency had reviewed the arguments of some of those skeptics during months of public comment but that none of them had raised significant new issues.And in Thailand:Map Ta Phut just the start

EDITORIAL, Bangkok Post, 8 Dec 09While industrial captains whine and the government struggles to keep up, events on the ground have exposed the real crisis at Map Ta Phut. Former prime minister Anand Panyarachun was only being realistic when he told senior business interests how poorly they had failed in their civic responsibility. As fate would have it, there was another serious industrial accident at the industrial zone. At least 28 people were stricken, five of them seriously, when they inhaled butene-1 gas that leaked from a tanker.

The pertinent warning from Mr Anand and yet another serious accident give indirect but strong support to the two recent court verdicts. The rulings by the Administrative Court and its parent Supreme Administrative Court have effectively put industry on notice that if businesses don't clean up their act - literally - they can be shut down in the interests of the entire country. Mr Anand's criticism, if anything, is even stronger. He represents the current last chance for businesses along the Eastern Seaboard to win permission to resume 65 industrial projects which are under injunction by the court.

It is surprising to many that the Map Ta Phut area has gone from smokestack to endangered in a little more than two months. The decision by the Rayong Administrative Court to declare the industrial zone as a pollution control area came a severe shock to both businesses and to the government. Immediately after the Sept 29 verdict, an obviously confused government announced it would appeal, and get the 76 banned industrial developments moving again. The appeal rather obviously was a dismal failure, leaving Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva and his economic ministers with few threads of hope to which to cling. Score a couple points for Gaia and the little people to day     

I dont know why....but feel sad reading ur journal...it is very nice journal btw...maybe i watch the movie 2012 too many times.