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Chavez takes up energy conservation
Ian James, Associated Press via KC Star
His ambitious social programs are built on Venezuela’s petroleum wealth, but President Hugo Chavez is increasingly talking up environmental causes and urging the world to cut back on oil use to fight global warming.
He wants to use some oil revenues in a venture to manufacture solar panels and has begun doling out millions of energy-saving fluorescent light bulbs to homes nationwide.
Some critics say Chavez’s campaign is mostly rhetoric, noting this is a country where government subsidies have gasoline prices at 12 cents a gallon, car sales are booming and vehicle exhaust chokes litter-strewn streets.
But Chavez says Venezuela can be an example, and he has begun exhorting his followers to drive less and take public transport. His government plans a windmill farm to generate electricity on the Caribbean coast and is exploring more uses for cleaner-burning natural gas.
(4 Feb 2007)
Related: Venezuela – An Ecologically Sustainable Revolution? (Green Left Weekly).
It’s “You” Who will Save the World
Ahmet Türker, USAK’s Energy Review Newsletter via Turkish Weekly Comment
Time magazine has awarded “You” as the personality of the year. Maybe it is a populist sign from a popular magazine, but with global warming and peak oil at our doorstep, it is now “your” turn to save the world with your care for using energy.
In the article written by Lev Grossman on December 13th, 2006, the impact of collaboration and communities in 2006 is emphasized as the main reasons for the awards. The article reads: “But look at 2006 through a different lens and you’ll see another story, one that isn’t about conflict or great men. It’s a story about community and collaboration on a scale never seen before. It’s about the cosmic compendium of knowledge Wikipedia and the million-channel people’s network YouTube and the online metropolis MySpace. It’s about the many wresting power from the few and helping one another for nothing and how that will not only change the world, but also change the way the world changes.” (Time’s Person of the Year: You)
…Turkey is an interesting example in this sense. Turkish people happen to be more aware of the efficient and green technologies than their government now.
Turkish people are no stranger to using energy sources efficiently. During the 80s there were lots of campaigns and official ads about using water and electricity efficiently. “Wastefulness is a sin” has been etched to the minds of millions. “If not used, turn it off” mainly referring to electric equipments is like a proverb to many Turks.
…The economical motives are one thing but still the “climate change” motives are completely missing among the Turkish public. “Are we ready to sacrifice our living style to stop climate change” is a question that has to be asked and answered.
(4 Feb 2007)
War and skis
Jeremy Leggett, Guardian
… I resolved yesterday to keep a diary of what happens in the climate-response arena from here on. I’ll talk about what I am doing, and not doing, as well as what I see others doing, and not doing, and how it all feels. In the process, I’ll endeavour to map out a checklist of potential personal and communal actions.
…Why am I skiing? Good question. I consider it, as I ride up those lifts. I look out across the Bernese Oberland, a place I have loved since boyhood. It is not as I have ever seen it before in winter. There is more rock than snow. My ski jacket is superfluous. I could be skiing, or rather ice sliding as the experience proves to be, in a T-shirt.
So why, indeed, am I doing it? Because it is what people like me do. I caught the train here. I’m taking a train all the way back to London. And I recycle, damn it.
Not good enough. The bare rock and the sugary smears of snow nag at me, talismans for all that is being lost on our planet. Above, vapour trails track across the blue sky. People going skiing, probably. Asinine overheard conversations and canned Swiss music mock me as I shuffle sheep-like in the lift queues.
The depression I feel has as much to do with the inappropriateness of what I am doing, in these times, as with the sullied beauty of the place and the contents of the morning papers. We are entertaining ourselves to death, the annoying invisible creature on my right shoulder whispers in my ear. There is a bigger picture here, as though you don’t know.
So that’s it. Mobilisation Resolution Number One.
Global action is an amalgam of millions of tiny personal initiatives, and sacrifices. This one hurts. I love skiing.
(5 Feb 2007)
The sad fact is that many outdoor activities, at least the way we currently practice them, require fossil fuels. The Sierra Club magazine has articles on global warming cheek by jowl with ads for exciting adventure getaways in far-away countries. SF writer Kim Stanley Robinson described a vision of how devoted adventurers gradually turn their attention to experiences closer to home (The Future of Adventure ). -BA
Arabs urged to use energy judiciously
Gulf Times
Two experts have called for the appropriate use of both conventional and renewable sources in energy-deficit Arab countries which suffer from huge power shortages. About half the Arab region faces power shortage and 20% of its population have no access to electricity, according to Merwat Tallawy, executive secretary at the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA).
Speaking to Gulf Times on the sidelines of the 6th ESCWA session on Energy at the Ritz Carlton yesterday she said some Arab countries such as Yemen, Egypt, Morocco and Sudan faced acute power shortage.
“There are many places in these countries where either there is no power or there is frequent disruption in supply.
“While these countries meet their demand mostly with power supplies from the energy-rich Gulf region, the development of alterative sources of energy is in their interest,” Merwat said.
(5 Feb 2007)
‘No quick fix to Eskom energy crisis’
Staff, Cape Times (South Africa)
The Cape Town Regional Chamber of Commerce and Industry has appealed to businesses to re-examine the way in which they use energy in order to save electricity.
The demand for power is steadily increasing and Eskom has asked householders to switch off geysers and other appliances during the evening peak hour.
Chamber president Janine Myburgh said on Tuesday it was clear that there would be no “quick fix” as Eskom simply could not generate enough power to meet the needs of the growing economy and maintain healthy reserve capacity.
It would be several years before new base-load power stations were in operation. “In the circumstances, it makes sense for companies to do energy audits and find ways to use less electricity. ..
(31 Jan 2007)
See also Aircon puts heat on Eskom.
