Scientists at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California have suggested a plan to drastically reduce global warming, by painting the world white.  If implemented successfully, it would be the equivalent of taking the world’s 600 million cars off the road for 18 years.

Hashem Akbari and Surabi Meno, along with Art Rosenfeld, California Energy Commissioner and Professor Emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley, are so convinced that their idea will work, that they have proposed a “Cool World” plan that would use white roofs, and solar-reflective roofs of other colors, to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and help delay atmospheric heating effects.

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Ken Livingstone, the former Mayor of London, has had a colourful professional life.

Always a social radical, he pushed the boundaries of London politics as leader of the Greater London Council in the early 1980s. By constantly attacking the Thatcher government’s policies he ensured unemployment, race issues and nuclear disarmament remained high on the news agenda.

After a hiatus as a Member of Parliament he returned to the tiller as Mayor of London in 2000 and surprised many by his comparatively moderate stance on many issues.

However, he had lost none of his radicalism and he quickly set about pushing the boundaries once more, but this time in a green direction. Here are five of his world leading initiatives, which politicians of all hues ought to take notice of.

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