News around the world today includes:

Arnie's signing a law which has set targets to reduce California's greenhouse gas emissions - way to go California! [BBC] Someone called Babs is busy blogging about trying to get to Brisbane from the UK, without travelling by plane as it's so environmentally damaging - now that's quite a feat if you can pull it off. I just hope she can convince her employer to change the number of days' vacation she's entitled to? [ecostreet]

Someone's started recycling plastic bags into funky, very aesthetically-pleasing bags, now that companies and even cities have begun banning them - a nifty idea and possibly a business plan for an entrepreneur in SA? [Treehugger]

Latest urbanisation stats hold that,whilst in 1900 there were only a handful of cities with a million people, today there are 408 cities that have a minimum of that many inhabitants. Tokyo's population of 35 million is larger than that of Canada whilst Mexico City has a population of 19 milliion, nearly equal to that of Australia! By 2007 more than half of us will live in cities - we will have become an urban species.[Treehugger]

And, according to a Japanese study, our 'tough' new air pollution laws may not be adequate enough to protect older people from being killed by sudden, short does of polluted air. Read more on IOL