><http://www.guardian.co.uk/climatechange/story/0,12374,1526525,00.html>
>
>...They will encourage the development of hydrogen
>fuel cells, which do not produce energy but use it...
This is at best a half-truth. In fact, fuel cells neither "produce" nor "use" energy--what they do is to convert energy from one form (hydrogen) to another, (electricity). But they do it without any emissions at all (except water). The problem with fuel cells is that they cannot be produced at an economically acceptable cost without the economies of scale provided by mass production but a mass market cannot exist until a massive hydrogen production and distribution network has been established. What is needed is not muttering of phrases about "encouraging" "development" but the immediate initiation of a more-than- Manhattan-Project-scale plan to produce massive amounts of hydrogen by wind-power fueled electrolysis (the Dakotas have enough wind energy to supply all the energy required by the US economy) and to construct a devoted network of hydrogen pipelines. Monbiot is of course completely right that the G-8 has nothing but evasions to offer.
Shane Mage
"Thunderbolt steers all things...It consents and does not consent to be called Zeus."
Herakleitos of Ephesos