Number 1: the enormous subsidies currently being paid in the EU to encourage the export of nasty polluting industries such as steel making to India (for example) which have been undeniably (even extraordinarily) effective in reducing local euro emissions and acid rain. Pity about the unemployment though, and worse the loss a significant percentage of the tax base now required for yet another tranche of EU bailouts

Number 2: Al Gores' damascene moment yesterday when he noted (and almost regretted) the L of U C occasioned by the diversion of 40% of the USA's corn crop into the enormously inefficient production of bio-ethanol. He did however, and very graciously note he was running for Prez at the time which of course makes it OK

Number 3: even a government as woebegone and morally bankrupt as the one steered by the Australian Labor Party with a little help from their fellow travellers the Greens and a failed spook can be made to look good as long as coal is king. Don't hold your breath too long though, while waiting for any of those worthy, pious and inestimable ideologues to turn the Hunter Valley into a national park any time soon or allow a land rights claim for a couple of thousand square miles of dirt just to west of Gladstone