Inaugural Balls Take On a Green Tinge - WSJ.com

...at the Green Inaugural Ball, whose chairman was former Vice President Al Gore, guests sipped herbal martinis and nibbled hors d'oeuvres from a 12-page menu that included a butternut-squash bisque with roasted hazelnut lemon creme fraiche and curry oil.
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The theme was "celebrating a renewed America." Some participants were also celebrating the $80 billion or so renewable energy and related companies stand to get in the new economic-stimulus bill working its way through Congress. Recycled-paper tickets sold out in 15 minutes for the carbon-neutral gala.

NASA scientist: Based on a ridiculous scam, let's give NASA scientists vast new global powers - Scientific American

But NASA can do more if the new Pres. Barack Obama and Congress give it the chance. The following are nine ways that it can help solve the world's energy and climate change problems:

1. Develop an integrated, global plan for energy and the environment. In collaboration with international partners and other agencies, and taking into account climate change data, the best models of their progression, and characteristics of renewable energy technologies (and the expected rate of their improvement), this plan would, among other things, detail: the rates of renewable technology deployment required; whatever additional climate data is necessary; the proper levels of carbon trading and caps; the data needed to measure the impact of those caps; and what mitigation technologies should be deployed. The plan would make clear whether nations could meet the internationally agreed-on carbon dioxide emission limits and still fulfill their energy needs. And if the current trajectory does not suffice, then what adaptations, in what technological areas, and in what locations would be needed to ensure they are met.
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Perhaps the new NASA motto could be: Science, Settlement and Sustainability.