KICK THE CO2 HABIT

World Environment Day, June 5, 2008, Calls for Kicking the CO2 Habit. By Gyles Beckford, Reuters, June 5, 2008. "U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon said global warming was becoming the era's defining issue and would hurt rich and poor [alike]. 'Our world is in the grip of a dangerous carbon habit,' Ban said in a statement [today]... World Environment Day, which is being marked by events around the globe and hosted by the New Zealand city of Wellington... World Environment Day, conceived in 1972, is the U.N.'s principal day to mark global green issues and aims to give a human face to environmental problems and solutions… 'We take pride in our clean, green identity as a nation and we are determined to take action to protect it. We appreciate that protecting the climate means behavior change by each and every one of us,' said New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark. New Zealand staged art and street festivals to spread the message... In Australia, Adelaide Zoo staged a wild breakfast for corporate leaders to focus on how carbon emissions threaten animal habitats... Many Asian cities, such as Bangalore and Mumbai, plan tree-planting campaigns... But in Europe, which claims to be a leader in the climate change battle, Environment Day passed with barely a blip." [And so too in the U.S.]