Actually most of us who run barefoot find urban environments drastically easier and more comfortable than natural surfaces. The reason is simple. When your form is good, the hardness of the surface matters very little. You're generating less impact, and you're absorbing it with the muscles and tendons that are built to absorb it (mostly arch and calf).
It is sharp and irregular surfaces that are difficult to run on barefoot. Natural trails are very difficult for me, but I can easily run 11+ miles at a time on pavement barefoot, and I routinely do.
I ran the Boston Marathon yesterday in Vibram FiveFingers, which are like thin gloves for your feet. My marathon recovery is faster now that I run barefoot & nearly barefoot than it was in my shod days.
The article makes a common error: asserting that China's CO2 emissions are rising. This is just White House propaganda to undermine Kyoto. China is actually *cutting* CO2 output. Here is an article from Science to that effect. This particlar article only discusses up to 2000, but the downward trend has continued since then.
Of course, to be fair, it should be noted that the above poster is a postdoc lecturer at MIT who is teaching Mathematics for Computer Science this semester and wrote the course notes, including a substantial portion involving number theory.
Oh God, now that I think about it . . . you're putting this on the final, aren't you? NOoOOOooOooOoOOoO!!!!!
By working faithfully eight hours a day, you may eventually get to be boss and work twelve. -- Robert Frost