The world is spending $300 billion every year to subsidize fossil fuels that pollute the air, wreck the climate ... and run the world's economy.

So what if we, as taxpayers, stopped spending $300 billion on coal, oil and natural gas, and started spending it instead on wind, sun and water?

That's the question at the heart of a new report from the United Nations Environment Program, which concludes that eliminating fuel subsidies would not only reduce greenhouse gas emissions, but might just inspire new economic growth. (Further, it concludes that fossil fuels subsidies sold as a way to help the poor keep the lights on actually do more to help the rich.) ...

The Giant knotweed plant, commonly called Goliath (the scientific name is Reynoutria sachalinensis), can be unsightly in roadside landscapes, a noxious weed in the home landscape, but is always a favorite forage plant for honey bees. It grows primarily in the eastern U.S. and when in plentiful supply produces a mild, medium amber honey that is favored by many, especially beekeepers who get to harvest the surplus.

The plant is an aggressive invasive weed that was introduced into the U.S. several years ago as an ornamental. It is native to Japan and Korea, grows to about 12 feet tall and can grow as much as 6 inches overnight. Its huge leaves actually offer shade in the summer and are often used around homes as a screen or shade producer. Of course that shade can be problematic for other plants, and left alone, Giant Knotweed soon commands large areas of land, shading out any competitors and out competing almost any other plant for water and nutrients. It doesn’t like company.

However, Pam G.Marrone, Ph.D reports on the development of a new "green" pesticide obtained from an extract of this giant knotweed plant, at the recent American Chemical Society meeting in Philadelphia. "The product is safe to humans, animals, and the environment," says Marrone, founder and CEO of Marrone Organic Innovations, Inc., in Davis, California.

The new biopesticide has active compounds that alert plant defenses to combat a range of diseases, including powdery mildew, gray mold and bacterial blight that affect fruits, vegetables, and ornamentals. The product will be available this October for conventional growers, according to Marja Koivunen, Ph.D., the director of R&D for Marrone. A new formulation has also been developed for organic farmers and will be available in 2009.

Biopesticides are derived from plants, microbes, or other natural materials and are proven to be safer for humans and the environment. The active ingredient of the company’s first product came from lemongrass oil.

Synthetic pesticides dominate the $30 billion pesticide market, but biopesticdes should reach $1 billion by 2010, about 4.25% of the global pesticide business.

One biopesticide commentator acknowledged that knotweed extract "induces phytoalexins which infer a plant’s resistance to powdery mildew and other diseases such as Botrytis". In other words, the extract helps the crop or ornamental plant fight the mold rather than attacking the mold directly. When the extract is made with organic alcohol, the fungicide should be considered organic, a boon for organic growers everywhere.

Why is this important? ...

The argument for offshore oil drilling has focused, wrongly, on current gasoline prices.

It's been well established that increased offshore oil drilling would make, at best, a few cents of difference on pump prices in about 10 years, assuming that the world's insatiable thirst for oil doesn't continue to increase, which is about as likely as Dick Cheney giving up hunting.

The argument against oil drilling has, also wrongly, focused on the potential environmental disasters in store from offshore drilling. Congress and past presidents restricted offshore oil drilling because of catastrophic spills that turned public opinion, particularly the opinion of beach-goers and wealthy coastal landowners, soundly against the idea of energy exploration near their ocean views.

At least, I thought the environmental disaster argument was wrong -- because it misses a larger point: Investing in oil now is like deciding it's a good time to get into the subprime mortgage business. The game ending, and you've already lost. Better to invest in alternatives now, while we still have enough oil to run the economy, than to postpone the inevitable and invite a future of persistent scarcity and high costs that dwarf those we've endured recently. (This is the pragmatic argument, ignoring completely for a moment that weaning ourselves off oil and coal will be essential to solve the global warming crisis.)

But maybe the offshore oil-environmental catastrophe argument is right after all.

Exhibit A: Exxon-Mobil. ...

I don’t know how many fireplaces Barack and Michelle Obama have in their home. I don’t know how many homes John and Cindy McCain own. Nor do I give a damn.

I do know that there are two houses that each American owns in addition to the ones he or she lives in. One is called the House of Representatives. The other is called the Senate. Those houses matter. Hold that thought.

Rather than counting fireplaces or real estate, let’s count megawatts. Eight hundred to be exact.

That’s how many megawatts of generating capacity will be added to California’s power grid from two mega solar projects planned for San Luis Obispo County. A week or so ago, Pacific Gas & Electric, one of California’s big utilities, signed contracts with two solar photovoltaic developers to build a 550-megawatt “solar farm” and a 250-megawatt “solar ranch.”

These won’t be penny-ante demonstration plants that produce more photo ops than power. Eight hundred megawatts is big. In capacity, 800 megawatts is about equal to a garden-variety coal plant and almost as big as your typical nuke. Together, the solar plants will produce enough carbon-free electricity to power an estimated 239,000 homes.

If they’re built, that is. Because if Congress doesn’t extend the solar investment tax credit, which expires Dec. 31, they may not get built. ...