It just so happens that the green religion is now taking over from the Christian religion. I don't think people have noticed that but it's got all the sort of terms that religions use... The greens use guilt. That just shows how religious greens are. You can't win people round by saying they are guilty for putting (carbon dioxide) in the air.

It's not a matter of if economies around the world becoming low-carbon but when and how: through struggle and strife or through advancement and progressive leadership. Larry Elliot described it today as the 'Green New Deal.' It's a leadership we in Britain can provide and from which our economy can benefit.

In any crass political calculation drilling for oil will always win more votes than putting a price on carbon. But if I recall what I was taught in fifth-grade American government class we elect presidents to do more than crass political calculations.

In corn I think I've found the key to the American food chain. If you look at a fast-food meal a McDonald's meal virtually all the carbon in it - and what we eat is mostly carbon - comes from corn.

The poster boy for our superabled future is Oscar Pistorius an increasingly famous South African sprinter who happens to have had both of his legs amputated below the knee. Using upside down question mark-shaped carbon fiber sprinting prosthetics called Cheetah blades Mr. Pistorius can challenge the fastest sprinters in the world.

On the environmental front there's concern about global warming and high levels of carbon dioxide and trees take in CO2 and store carbon.

You will die but the carbon will not its career does not end with you. It will return to the soil and there a plant may take it up again in time sending it once more on a cycle of plant and animal life.

Money spent on carbon cuts is money we can't use for effective investments in food aid micronutrients HIV/AIDS prevention health and education infrastructure and clean water and sanitation.

I think it's harder for people than it should be. But as more and more of us become carbon neutral and change the patterns in our lives to be part of the solution instead of part of the problem we are now beginning to see the changes in policy that are needed.

Some argue that now isn't the time to push the green agenda - that all efforts should be on preventing a serious recession. That is a false choice. It fails to recognise that climate change and our carbon reliance is part of problem - high fuel prices and food shortages due to poor crop yields compound today's financial difficulties.