Clover Moore, MLA (independent) for the state seat of Sydney and lord mayor of Sydney, has got a gong from the notorious Bush-whacker 'Red Ken' Livingstone and New York's billionaire mayor Michael Bloomberg.

She will take the Earth Hour message to New York next month. It's a pretty swift reaction, considering today is only the third day after the event. The Sydney Morning Herald's Sunanda Creagh covers the story.

Creagh also writes that Moore "has been invited ... to join the C40 Large Cities Climate Leadership Group". What this means is anyone's guess. The 'Programmes' page of the Web site states:

Our programmes aim to put the procurement of green technologies at the disposal of city planners, governments and the private sector.

The group was born in October 2005, apparently, when "representatives of 18 cities met in London to discuss cooperation on addressing global warming". The group expanded in August 2006 when the Clinton Climate Initiative joined with its 22 members. Confusion grows when you look at the 'C40 Cities' page. There you find a list of 28 "C40 Large Cities to date" and another of 12 "Affiliated C40 Cities". At least both sets of figures add up to 40. Whew.

Melbourne was already in the first list, so Moore's ascension offers a great opportunity for us to get one up on our southern neighbour. Grrrrr.

Buried in Creagh's story is some interesting info, though. Apparently, "More women than men took part [in Earth Hour] and the inner city had the highest level of participation." So people like Moore herself — trendy urban females — emerge as the wise custodians of our collective conscience.