ZPEnergy.com - Global warming might turn the Earth into a fiery planet; U.S.

Stephen Hawking charmed a group of Chinese students on Wednesday, telling them he liked Chinese culture and women while warning that global warming might turn the Earth into a fiery planet...

Asked about the environment, Hawking, who suffers from a degenerative disease and speaks through a computerized voice synthesizer, said he was "very worried about global warming." He said he was afraid that Earth "might end up like Venus, at 250 degrees centigrade and raining sulfuric acid."

Source: China Daily - Hawking

In Other news: U.S., European Leaders Initiate Dialogue to Avert Climate Change.

VIENNA, Austria, June 21, 2006 (ENS) - The United States and the European Union- have agreed to "act with resolve and urgency to reduce greenhouse gas emissions," a new relationship for the two governments. The two sides have for years been at odds over the Kyoto climate protocol, which the E U has ratified, but the Bush administration has resisted.

At their annual Summit meeting, held today at Hofburg Palace in Vienna, President George W. Bush and EU President Manual Barroso agreed to establish a new EU-U.S. High Level Dialogue on Climate Change, Clean Energy and Sustainable Development that will hold its first meeting in the fall in Helsinki, Finland.

At the press conference after the formal Summit, President Bush commented on the new climate relationship in a way that indicates he still does not support the Kyoto Protocol, a treaty that imposes legally binding greenhouse gas emissions targets. Instead, he relies on technology to solve the climate change problem.

"We talked about energy," said President Bush in his only comment on the subject. "I kind of startled my country when, in my State of the Union-, I said we're hooked on oil and we need to get off oil. That seemed counterintuitive for some people to hear a Texan say. But the truth of the matter is, we got to diversify away from oil. And the best way to do it is through new technologies."

"We agreed we would share technologies between our nations and between the EU and the United States. The EU needs to get diversified, as well," Bush said. "And so this is going to be a very interesting period for us as new technologies develop and we're willing to share those technologies."

President Barroso said, "We have agreed to establish a European Union- and United States high-level dialogue on climate change, clean energy, sustainable development, to address ways to get cost-effective emission cuts, development and employment of new technologies, efficiency and conservation, renewable fuels and other environmental issues such as biodiversity." ...

Read More: http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/jun2006/2006-06-21-04.asp