Getting the Needle From the Headline

This guy can't get the Government of Australia to send him to the global warming love in, so he's going on his own - using his frequent flier points.

Foreign Affairs Minister Alexander Downer rejected Senator Brown's bid to become part of the official 50-member Australian delegation, so he is using frequent flyer points to get to Johannesburg.

Anyone who's got that many miles, according to Gore & Co., Inc., must have a carbon footprint must be the size of Borneo.

Senator Brown said he plans to meet other greens and environment ministers at the world summit on sustainable development, which has attracted 65,000 environmental experts and lobbyists from 189 countries. The Howard Government has very much got its head in the sand," Senator Brown said. "Its got the coal industry with it. Its got the big manufacturing industries - they don't want to cut back on their greenhouse gas emissions.

Right . . .and flying 65,000 people to one place is cutting back how?