Religious leaders pray for the planet
Just when you thought the world was about to cascade into an inevitable cycle of decline, courtesy of global warming, religious leaders have come to save the day with the power of prayer. On Friday religious leaders came together on a cruise ship, in a silent “prayer for the planet,” alongside a diminishing Greenland glacier. This forms part of an expanding spiritual crusade to tackle climate change. The prayer was a means of voicing concerns to God rather than requesting the end of global warming.
Posted by Dawn Mellowship on September 7, 2007 6:38 PM
in Green News| Planet saving
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Former US Vice-President Al Gore is writing a book called The Path to Survival which will be a sequel to his 2006 Oscar-winning film An Inconvenient Truth. The book will follow on from the film, which was a hard-hitting documentary about the reality of climate change, and cover solutions to the potential catastrophes for mankind which may befall as a result of increasingly unpredictable weather patterns and global warming.
The BBC had planned to air a day-long programme similar to its Comic Relief and Live8 programmes to highlight global warming and environmental issues. The programme had provisionally booked Jonathan Ross and Ricky Gervais as presenters and was due to be shown early next year. The BBC defended its decision to axe the programme by saying that it was not their job to lead opinion on the issue of global warming. Peter Horrocks, head of television news, wrote in the BBC News website editor's blog: "It is not the BBC's job to lead opinion or proselytise on this or any other subject.” Funny that, the BBC seem to be quite comfortable to lead opinion on many other issues, such as poverty, famine…and many others. 
Pope Benedict has spoken of the need to protect the environment. He made another appeal at the end of his general audience in St. Peter’s Square today. He said "Care of water resources and attention to climate change are matters of grave importance for the entire human family…I invite all of you to join me in praying and working for greater respect for the wonders of God's creation." This is his second such speech in four days. Last Sunday at an ‘eco-friendly’ youth rally he told around half a million people that world leaders have to make courageous decisions to save the planet “before it is too late.” This must be a first for the Catholic Church, an environmentally friendly pope, using his influence for the good of the planet. It’s good news for the planet in one sense, but it also shows how urgent the issue is right now.
China is planning to increase the use of biofuels, aiming to use 2 million tonnes of bioethanol and 200,000 tonnes of biodiesel by 2010. By 2020 China hopes to be using 10 million tonnes of bioethanol and 2 million tonnes of biodiesel. This is pretty much in line with other developed countries, but the difference is that China is not going to be using corn as the basis of its biofuel production. Chen Deming, the vice chairman of the National Development and Reform Commission said: "In the future, all the biofuel production will use non-grain crops." The problem is that using corn and other food crops for biofuel reduces the amount of staple food crops available globally, which means higher prices and less availability, especially for the poorest communities.
It can be a pretty tough life as an environmentally-conscious music fan. Of course, there are the big concerts like Live Earth, but putting out an album and running a tour can be quite energy-intensive events. So do you battle with your guilt and attend gigs and buy CDs, or not? Well, with Leeds-based 
