Saudi to give $300 million for environmental research

[jpak]

http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSL1731244420071117

RIYADH (Reuters) - Top world oil exporter Saudi Arabia will give $300 million for research into helping the environment by lowering emissions, its head of state King Abdullah said on Saturday.

"We will give $300 million for research into helping the environment," he said in a speech during a summit of OPEC heads of state which is taking place in the Saudi capital.

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[KansDem]

1. This is in their own best interests!

I heard on the BBC this morning that the push for eliminating CO2 from the burning of fossil fuels is on. Supposedly, this CO2 will be stored underground.

The idea of funding research into ways to curb emissions while allowing the continued use of fossil fuels has been floated in forums ahead of the summit.

I can't help but believe that if it weren't for increased interest in recent years into researching renewable energy sources along with an increased awareness of climate change (ie, An Inconvenient Truth), the Saudis wouldn't give a second thought for ways to remove CO2 from the atmosphere.

Sorry, Saudis, we want a cleaner Earth and we want off your oil! Your corrupting influence on "leaders" of few morals and little intelligence has wreaked enough havoc for the global community.

[NNadir]

2. They could greenwash themselves more cheaply by hiring Amory Lovins.

He only costs $20,000/day.

I'll bet for $40,000/day, Amory will also offer indulgences for the Saudis relationship with Al Queda - that would be called "dangerous fossil fuel terrorism".

For $60,000/day, Amory will also white wash the sentence imposed against a gang rape victim - 200 lashes and 6 months in jail imposed on a 19 year old woman by Saudi courts.

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=071115145104.rykb7bub&show_article=1

Wonderful guys, those Saudis a real civic minded bunch.

I note that the young woman's lawyer, a human rights activist, was disbarred and the woman's sentence increased from 90 lashes to 200 because the lawyer appealed to a decent world about the crime.

And what will our car culture apologists do about this? Um, I dunno, maybe they'll all drive to a locally grown dinner for 40 for Thanksgiving, swig Allen's Coffee Brandy right from the bottle and try not to think about it.

Anyone who is impressed by a three hundred million "gift" from a "kingdom" that makes all of its money from dangerous fossil fuels doesn't know shit from shinola about energy. The fact is that 300 billion dollars would not make a dent in the dangerous fossil fuel crisis. In fact, it's not even clear that 300 trillion dollars could undo the damage that the idiot indifference to dangerous fossil fuel waste has caused.

In fact, the car culture yuppie wiggling and self-justifications are all meaningless at this point.