marklynas.orgChina to become a world leader in renewables? 29 September 05
According to Christoper Flavin, president of the relentlessly optimistic Worldwatch Institute, China is set to lead the world on renewables – quickly outpacing laggards like the United States in developing a vibrant new sector of the global energy economy. “Already, 35 million homes in China get their hot water from solar collectors. That is more than the rest of the world combined,” he told reporters on the sidelines of an energy conference in Johannesburg. Flavin predicts that China will be a market leader in renewables within as little as five years, confounding the usual Western vision of the country as a dirty colossus, spewing smoke and greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. Flavin’s implication is also clear: that those who stick with the oil addiction are not just endangering the planet, but are also endangering their own economic prospects for the future by refusing to adapt and innovate.
So who might these backward-looking fossil fuel dinosaurs be? Step forward most leading US politicians, particularly Republicans like Senator James Inhofe. As reported on RealClimate.org, Inhofe has recently been receiving testimony on global warming from none other than the science fiction writer Michael Crichton. Inhofe prefers fiction to fact on this issue, it seems.
Comments
September 29th, 2005 at 04:09 PM
Politicians will soon be seeing the light about oil as winter sets in. The price points for heating homes have been predicted to increase by as much as 170% this winter. Natural gas has out paced oil in the price increases over here.
With constituents screaming in the politicians ears hopefully some will wake up to finding alternative energy sources. You may have noticed that even GW has talked about the need for increasing the number of nuclear power plants.
I agree that the US will be weaknened by their dependance on foreign sources of oil. Hybrid production cars and other car energies has also been fast tracked to a market to a gas price weary consumer. Ford has predicted several hundred thousand units to be sold next year.
I hope the price stays high long enough for driving habits to be changed in the US and energy awareness to take hold. Then when the US demand plumments because of other sources and smarter consumers the oil price will collapse. The US needs to definitely move in the direction of smarter uses of energy and alternate ways to produce it…. and I think we will.
Lynn Vincentnathan
September 29th, 2005 at 04:48 PM
Here’s something about how melting ice is thawing out all sorts of ancient diseases to which we & other living beings today may have no resistence:
http://www.climateark.org/articles/reader.asp?linkid=46721
I think Crichton ought to get right on this topic & write a great novel about it. It’s right up his JURASSIC PARK & ANDROMEDA STRAIN alley. There already is a great novel, THE DOOMSDAY BOOK by Connie Willis, that involves a time machine & uncovering the plague, bringing it into the present time. It is very well written (you Brits are great writers), unlike STATE OF FEAR.
Lynn Vincentnathan
September 30th, 2005 at 05:34 PM
we’d already be well on the road to efficiency, conservation, & alt energies, perhaps reducing our household & business energy needs down even to 1/2. Anyway, better late than never. Just too bad we had to wait for emergency-like conditions to spur this – which will certainly create some chaos & confusion.
So the best way right now to half our gasoline & home energy bills is: energy efficient products, such as SunFrost refrig, CF bulbs, etc.; low-flow showerheads; insulation/water heater jacket/pipe insulation/caulking windows, etc; turning off lights & heat in rooms not being used, etc.
I hope we don’t end up with a bunch of frozen dead poor people who just couldn’t pay their $1000/month energy bills. That actually used to happen in Chicago.
Colin Keyse
October 2nd, 2005 at 12:47 AM
Nice link Lynn, the same item came up in the Independent a few days ago and the article is repoduced here:
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0928-02.htm
However, they do note that many pathogens that have survived dormant in the ice, will not survive either the thawing-out process or the present-day environment. But you never know!
kind regards
Colin