Adding To Greenhouse Gas Emissions

Protestors at the G8 summit in Germany appear to have no problem torching cars or assaulting police. In the former case, that goes directly against the heart of the environmental movement - the destruction of all those cars and torching them adds to greenhouse gas emissions.

In the latter case, 146 police officers were injured.

Masked demonstrators showered police with grapefruit-sized rocks and beer bottles, then were driven back with water cannon and tear gas during a protest march Saturday against the upcoming Group of Eight summit in Germany.

The clashes left smoke from burning cars and the sting of tear gas drifting through the harborfront area in the north German port of Rostock. Some 146 police were hurt, 18 of them seriously.

Radicals "are smashing everything in their way to pieces," said Karsten Wolff, a police spokesman.

The officially permitted march preceded a three-day summit beginning Wednesday in the seaside resort of Heiligendamm, where German Chancellor Angela Merkel hosts the leaders of the other G-8 nations -- Britain, France, Japan, Italy, Russia, Canada and the United States.

The leaders are expected to discuss measures against global warming, the fight against AIDS and poverty in Africa, and the world economy. As in previous years, the summit drew protesters of various stripes opposed to globalization, capitalism and the G-8 itself.

As usual, the thugs behind the attacks on police are a collection of anarchists, communists, and other groups that oppose Western civilization. They are anti-G8 groupies, who follow the G8 summit around and wreak havoc every time they get together to work on global issues like AIDS, environmental issues, or trade.