France on green crusade (AP/CNN)

[eppur_se_muova]

PARIS, France (AP) -- Stamping camembert with a "carbon footprint" rating. Charging Parisians for the empty Bordeaux bottles they discard. Banning high speeds through the pasture-lined highways of the Loire Valley.

France is trying to clean up its act, readying measures this week aimed at reversing its image as environmental laggard and making it a pioneer in the fight against global warming and other threats to the Earth's well-being.

Yet environmental groups fear the measures, to be finalized at a conference Wednesday and Thursday, will be too watered down to make a difference in France's carbon emissions and have little impact on worldwide efforts to reduce the pollution that is warming the planet.

President Nicolas Sarkozy isn't letting those fears slow his push to raise France's eco-profile.

He put global warming high on his agenda after his election in May, creating Europe's most powerful environment ministry and berating the United States for its resistance to emissions cuts. At the United Nations, Sarkozy urged developed countries and major polluters to commit to a 50 percent reduction in greenhouse gases by 2050.
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more: http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/science/10/23/greening.of.france.ap/index.html

[MasonJar]

1. 50% by 2050 is not going to cut it.

[AlecBGreen]

2. what was it Ann Richards said?

You can put lipstick on a pig and call it Monique but its still just a pig.

Nice to see France is at least setting a goal... How about the US? Has Bush made any such pledges? :shrug: