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Sweden To Try To End Fossil Fuels Dependency By 2020 – PM
AP via Dow Jones News
STOCKHOLM –Prime Minister Goran Persson said Tuesday that Sweden will try to end its dependency on fossil fuels in 15 years by boosting research devoted to alternative energy sources.
Persson, addressing lawmakers returning to Parliament after the summer recess, said global warming was a growing concern.
“We are frightened by climate change today,” Persson said as he laid out government policy for the next 12 months. “The mean temperature of the earth is rising, and it is rising most nearest to the poles…. A new goal will be set: creation of the conditions necessary to end Sweden’s dependence on fossil fuels by 2020.”
Persson said the government will increase spending on energy research and will start subsidizing exports of environmental technology. Wind power will be extended and a tax regime promoting renewable energy sources would continue, he said. For example, taxes would be reduced for cars running on natural gas instead of gasoline.
(13 September 2005)
Take It to the Limit
On speed limits
Umbra Fisk, Grist Magazine
Q: I was babbling about the ’70s energy crisis, gas rationing, and the nationwide 55 mile-per-hour speed limit at work the other day, and found myself explaining to a group of younger people how you save gas if you drive slower. They had never heard such a thing! Could you refresh my memory about why 55 is the magic number for saving fuel? They need to hear it in scientificese.
A: As you well remember, 55 mph was decreed the national speed limit in 1973. It was lifted in rural areas in 1987, but stuck around as federal law until 1995. Every single “Tips for Saving Gas” list still tells you to drive 55 mph, but very few tell you why. I’ll tell you, though: physics. (Well, and politics — a 35 mph interstate speed limit would not have met with favor.)
Here’s the easy version of my physics lesson: driving slower means less “drag,” and thus less effort by the engine. Drag is aerodynamic resistance, basically. You’ve felt it if you’ve ever walked with a banner in a parade or protest, or pushed against a heavy wind in a flapping coat. That’s the same drag a car experiences as it pushes forward on the road — it fights the air, it fights the friction of the road, it fights the urge to pull off and get a Big Mac. And instead of burning lunch to fight drag, it burns gas. The more drag, the more gas.
Now here’s the scientificese…
(19 September 2005)
Timeless Lessons for Rebuilding New Orleans: 5 Point Strategy for Sustainable Rebuilding
Richard Register, Global Public Media
What do New Orleans and suburbia have in common? Both need to be rebuilt.
That’s the big secret behind today’s headlines that nobody is talking about. If New Orleans was victimized by Hurricane Katrina, the habit of building in the suburban style was largely the cause of it. How so? Climate change and automobile- dependent sprawl. More specifically, scattered development patterns, once built, force long distance travel for our everyday lives, causing us to burn enormous quantities of fuel and loading more climate-changing CO2 into the atmosphere. This is not a trivial contribution to the problem. Cities are the largest creations of humanity – you’d think we’d be very careful how we build them, but we haven’t been. And also, the vast land areas gobbled up by car-induced scatterization makes it well nigh impossible to build appropriately to the natural environment in any location.
(19 September 2005)
Free U.S. Program provides solution for more clean energy
John Zyskowski, OurEnergy Press Release
Our Energy is a unique program that enables almost every purchase you make online to generate clean domestic renewable energy at no cost. It will enable every American to play a part in building our energy independence at no cost and will lessen the demand on our fossil fuel supplies.
More than 750 top brand merchants have partnered with Our Energy, to help to support the growth of wind, solar, geothermal, small hydro and biomass. These renewable sources of power cause dramatically less air pollution and environmental damage than energy generated by coal, oil or nuclear power.
(21 September 2005)
