The big news from Down Under from last week was Pope Benedict XVI's visit. The Vatican has elevated climate change as a concern recently. See this from the "Voice of America." (For something a bit more substantive from The Holy See, see this speech from February at the UN.)
The Pope would be preaching to the choir, as it were, in Australia. The "Sydney Morning Herald" wrote today that a recent poll revealed that " 77 per cent believe Australia should press ahead and cut its greenhouse gas emissions, regardless of what other countries do." The government released its Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme last week to acclaim and opposition. I wrote last year about the momentous change in government and how it would impact the climate change debate there and internationally. See Australia Has New Leadership and New Tack on Global Warming. Australia and Australians are moving ahead.
Meanwhile, elsewhere in the Commonwealth, so are some Canadian provinces. Ontario is the fourth province to join the Western Climate Initiative. See Canada's Ontario Joins US Carbon Initiative from PlanetArk. The drumbeat for interstate, national, regional and international cap-and-trade continues. (See last paragraph of "Gore on Energy" below.)
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On low-cost, sustainable housing, I wrote about some ways to skin that cat at Habitat a few months ago. See this now from the venerable and still-cutting edge Worldwatch Institute.
