  Following the subtraction procedure for manifolds with boundaries, we
calculate by variational methods, the Schwarzschild-de Sitter and the de Sitter
space energy difference. By computing the one loop approximation for TT tensors
we discover the existence of an unstable mode even for the non-degenerate case.
This result seems to be in agreement with the sub-maximal black hole pair
creation of Bousso-Hawking. The instability can be eliminated by the boundary
reduction method. Implications on a foam-like space are discussed.
