Green, Global Warming | featured news

China acknowledged on Tuesday it is the world's biggest emitter of greenhouse gases stoking global warming, confirming what scientists have said for years but defending its right to keep growing emissions.

Four of President Barack Obama's top environmental and energy officials are urging the Senate to pass legislation to reduce emissions of the gases linked to global warming.

The heads of the Energy Department, Agriculture Department, Interior Department and Environmental Protection Agency told a Senate panel Tuesday they should pass a bill similar to one the House narrowly cleared late last month. That legislation would impose the first limits on greenhouse gases, reducing them by 80 percent by mid-century.

Urban visionaries in London and Seoul, two of the world's busiest capital cities, foresee buses gliding through their streets with speed, ease and efficiency - without emitting the exhaust fumes that scientists say are contributing to global warming. Under Mayor Boris Johnson's vision, London's iconic red double-decker Routemaster buses would be back on the streets - but powered by electricity, not gasoline.

Jonathon Porritt, who chairs the government's Sustainable Development Commission, says curbing population growth through contraception and abortion must be at the heart of policies to fight global warming.