New Statesman - A planet-saving climate fest

But they had gathered for a ritual haunted by absences: that of the EU and of the announced messiah, Barack Obama, to whom the former vice-president Al Gore, at a packed revivalist address, played John the Baptist. The EU's attention was on the final negotiations in Brussels, 500 miles away, for its own climate and energy package: the means by which the EU's promise of 20 per cent cuts in CO2 emissions by 2020 will be delivered. The Polish government, playing the concerned host in Poznan, led the wrecking crew in Brussels, insisting on - and getting - indulgences for its own coal. When the package finally staggered into daylight, the EU's claim to climate leadership sagged like an old helium balloon. At 3am on the Saturday, news of the meagre outcome of the Poznan negotiations echoed to an almost empty conference centre.

The city of Poznan calculated the emissions generated by the attendance of the ministers, secretaries, assistants, interpreters, security men, activists, experts, journalists, ex-politicians, busi nessmen, policy wonks, interns, congressional aides and EU staffers at 13,000 tonnes, and announced that this would be offset, a gesture as effective at inducing virtue as the sale of papal indulgences.

We think: Obama's Cabinet should help the nation kick bad energy habits -- OrlandoSentinel.com

But there's the rub for the incoming administration. No one questions its earnestness in wanting to help reduce carbon emissions 80 percent by 2050; its wanting to train millions of workers to install solar panels and build rail systems and plug-in hybrid cars; and its wish to pass green legislation that will show the world the U.S. is ready to lead on reducing carbon emissions globally.

But most everyone in Washington knows the breadth of its ambition will trigger explosions, planted by short-sighted businesses and government opponents wary of what it will do to their profits and long-held positions of power. Its cost and complexity also should present challenges.

It will fall to Ms. Browner -- an old hand at navigating tripwires from her days running Florida's Department of Environmental Regulation -- Mr. Obama and the rest of his team to get Washington to accept enough of their science-driven agenda to make a difference.

Colorado | Cold weather overwhelms homeless shelters

KUSA - When the temperatures dip below freezing, the Denver Rescue Mission has an emergency shelter plan that helps the homeless stay indoors. But when the temperatures dip below zero, the Mission and other shelters are filled beyond capacity, and they need our help.