Green Options

In an effort to help a major developing country (the 4th largest country in the world) deal with climate change appropriately, the new Prime Minister of Japan reportedly agreed to give Indonesia a $400 million loan for this last weekend.

Controversial proposals by the Australian government would mean shooting more than 650,000 camels from helicopters - and even making camel burgers.

Camels have become a problem in Australia’s remote Outback.

There are now about a million camels, and the population doubles every nine years. The animals were introduced to the Australia in the 1840’s by explorers who relied on them to journey through the desert. But now, camels are competing with livestock for food - and are apparently scaring people by destroying water pipes and bathrooms as they search for water.

Sky News has reported that the Australian government believes the population needs to be culled by two thirds - and they have a budget of $19 million AUD to take care of the situation.

That means the mass killing of more than 650,000 camels.

This article is part of EcoWorldly’s week-long spotlight on Politicians You Can Believe In. To read more, subscribe to our RSS feed, or view our posts about politics.

(Kittens make everything cuter.)

Stephen Harper, Conservative Party leader and newly re-elected Prime Minister of Canada, isn’t many people’s ideal of an environmental hero. He once famously called the Kyoto accord “job-killing, economy-destroying,” and a “socialist scheme.” Understandably, many Canadians look disapprovingly on his environmental record.

However, for a society to achieve sustainability it must have the support conservative leaders as well as liberal leaders, especially when a conservative leader like Harper begins to take interest in the environment. Over the last several years, the Harper government has been making efforts to turn over a new, greener leaf. Despite his continued foot-dragging on Kyoto emissions targets, Harper has been at the head of some important achievements.