The spectacular opening ceremony of the 2008 Beijing Olympic games took place yesterday. The four-hour event was choreographed by celebrated Chinese film director Zhang Yimou. The finale was in the style of a martial arts movie, and involved former Olympic gymnastics champion Li Ning "running" along the rim of the roof of the Bird's Nest stadium, before using his Olympic torch to light the huge Beijing cauldron, home of the Olympic flame for the next few days.

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Barack Obama gave a speech on Monday in Lansing Michigan, an area very familiar with the decline in the US automobile industry. He took the opportunity to outline his current energy policy, and he started out by laying his cards on the table:

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Last week the World Trade Organization met again, this time in Geneva. They failed to agree….. again. According to the Economist magazine:

The round’s chief ambition was to straighten out some of the kinks in agricultural trade. This ancient activity, which accounts for only 8% of world merchandise trade, is the most heavily distorted by misbegotten policies. It is, therefore, in agriculture that an agreement could do the most good. But it was also in agriculture that the agreement came unstuck.

According to the BBC:

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In a speech at Constitution Hall in Washington yesterday former Vice President Al Gore put forward his new vision of how the climate change crisis has deteriorated to the point that:

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Yesterday afternoon United States President George W. Bush lifted the executive ban on drilling for oil on the Outer Continental Shelf, which was signed by the first President Bush in 1990. Here's the video:

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This week's issue of the Economist magazine contains their verdict on the G8 summit in Japan – They came, they jawed, they failed to conquer.

On the positive side the Japanese hosts managed to get most of the world's greenhouse-gas emitters around a table together. The attendees included the G8, plus the so called G5 which consists of Brazil, China, India, Mexico and South Africa. Also present were Australia, Indonesia and South Korea.

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British Prime Minister Gordon Brown recently commissioned a survey from Professor Ed Gallagher, former chief of the Environment Agency and now head of the Renewable Fuels Agency. Prof. Gallagher was asked to investigate the effect of biofuels on food prices and on the environment in general.

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British Prime Minister Gordon Brown made a quick trip to Saudi Arabia over the weekend. He was the only western leader to make the trip. According to The Times Mr. Brown:

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Both presidential candidates commented today on the current high fuel prices, although for some strange reason neither of them suggested EcoDriving as part of the solution to the problem!

According to a New York Times report on a meeting in Detroit at which Al Gore formally endorsed Barack Obama for the first time Mr. Obama said:

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