The following are editorial opinions from newspapers from around the world which may be of interest to Royal Gazette readers.

The Miami Herald, –on global warming

The weather is unsettling this winter. Florida has had a record number of cold days this year after going through one of the hottest Decembers on record. Meanwhile, massive winter storms have blanketed the Eastern Seaboard and Southeastern United States with record snow falls.

The weird weather has brought out the global warming sceptics. How can the Earth be heating up, they say, if we're having such cold weather?

What they forget is that one of the outcomes of global warming predicted by scientists is more extremes in our weather. Bigger storms, longer and more widespread droughts, excessive precipitation in some places unaccustomed to much rain and so forth. Global warming isn't just affecting our annual weather cycles but, albeit much more gradually, our overall climatic conditions.

Don't look for subtropical South Florida to turn into either equatorial Africa or chilly Northern Canada in the coming decades. But do look for more of what we've seen recently: Weather-wise, the 2000s were warmer than the previous decade — and the 1990s were warmer than the 1980s.

Locally, that means our summer temperatures are climbing into the 90s more often than they did 20 years ago. Right now, sea level is rising about a foot a century thanks to global warming.

But some scientists, including Hal Wanless, chair of the University of Miami's Department of Geological Sciences and a renowned expert on climate change, warn that South Florida could see a higher rise in sea level. The cause is the more recent phenomenon of the accelerated melting of Greenland and warming in the Arctic Ocean.

So don't let the sceptics lull you into believing we have nothing to worry about. The primary source of global warming is carbon dioxide from burning fossil fuels. We must — individually and collectively — become more energy efficient while simultaneously supporting development of renewable energy sources that will sustain, not destroy, Earth.

Kathimerini, Athens, Greece,– on the country's financial crisis

We must not look at Greece's financial crisis as a black cloud, because it also presents the country with a new opportunity.

Prime Minister George Papandreou is in a position where he can make important decisions that go beyond fiscal measures and influence more than the economy: Greece needs to be pushed forward, to embrace change, but what it needs to do first is erase the backward mentalities and remove the obstacles that have kept the private sector and entrepreneurship from flourishing.

Papandreou needs to make what significant changes he can now, while he still enjoys the support of the majority of the country's population and a large section of the opposition.

Opening up closed-shop professions, trimming the red tape that keeps so many good and profitable initiatives from moving ahead, and making work regulations more flexible so that they reflect contemporary reality are some of the measures that he must implement very soon. If he waits, he will be making a big mistake, much like his predecessor Costas Karamanlis did.