World Citizen Blog

The World is changing. Our knowledge of Nature is growing. Our Ignorance is decreasing.

Our Conservative folks stay behind and enjoy the warm and fuzzy dream world of their own, where oil is cheap and widely available.

“What would happen if the world ran out of oil?”

Join the World Without Oil alternative social game to find out what can happen if there is no oil, or oil is so expensive, people cannot afford it.

If you would like to read a nice review about the World Without Oil event, head to the recent issue of The Escapist.

Tags: global warming oil

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Filed under: Green Environment on September 25th, 2007 • 362 Views

Every European citizen knows that saving energy (electricity) is important, important for the environment and important for the family budget. Those tiny kilowatt hours can accumulate very fast and strike your family budget every month.

The situation is very different in the USA. The US citizens were encouraged to spend more gas and electricity by utilizing appliances that waste electricity with efficiency less then 30%. That created big profits for the energy companies. Then electricity was becoming more and more expensive, and US consumers were forced to buy less shiny but more efficient appliances made outside US. Finally, the Energy Star standards were adopted and widespread in North America. However, people were still wasting a lot of energy by using old incandescent bulbs and leaving computers running over night, even if they dont need them.

I found this article about how to save money, and use less electricity: “Save Money By Saving Environment, And Invest It“. Really good tips.

I also was invited to a local cinema to watch a movie made by a non-profit organization Kilowatt Ours. The most shocking moments in that movie were the scenes of the coal sludge all over the river, forest and a village. Terrible. Anyway, those guys also give free tips on how you can save money, and how and where to buy energy efficient equipment.

I’m glad the public is becoming more aware about the electricity waste. We really need to start giving this information in our schools, so our kids will not forget to turn the light in the bathroom, and be conscious that that wasted electricity means more coal sludge in our rivers and more pollution in our air. Hopefully, we can soon switch to the green energy produced by solar panels and wind generators; recent news show that the green energy becomes even cheaper then the traditional nuclear and coal energy, however, the transition will be painfull for the big energy corporations, if they dont change their mindset…

Tags: consciousness environment global warming

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Filed under: Green Environment on July 13th, 2007 • 812 Views

Why do people oppose the Global Warming warnings?

They are just scared. Scared of changing their life, scared of big changes. They need to give up big shiny SUVs, drive smaller cars (a lot of them think that SUVs are safer - a big misconception). They need to probe new vehicles like electric ones (spooky!).

Yes, electric vehicles are a bit expensive for mainstream, but only because companies who produce them want quicker return on investment, that’s it. The electric guts (engine, converter plus batteries) can be bought for about $10,000 at market price (not even wholesale, which will be about 30% less), the rest will be for car body, tires, etc. An electric vehicle can do about 250 miles one one charge, which is an average for a gasoline one. Add to your car a small solar panel, and you can recharge your vehicle on the go. Add a small generator and you can recharge car batteries while moving - all simple ideas to implement if you are an engineer, or a car mechanic.

The scared and ignorant people tend to use any possible solution, even creating a movie (”The Great Global Warming Swindle”) that showing that the Global Warming is a myth… A movie by a person who has nothing to do with science, but claiming his point of view as a scientific one… Yes, Mr. Global-Warming-Does-Not-Exist, I’m talking to you! Your movie just created a wave of protests among scientists around the world, think about that - would scientists stand against a valid point?

The funny bottom line is that movie claims that the reason of climate change is volcanic emissions… How many active volcanoes do we have? What’s their emission rate and what is the combined emission rate of coal plants, locomotives and the cars? Go do your math and dont waste money for a movie that may comfort someone for 3-5 years until the Polar Ice will melt completely. Better spend those money for children in Africa…

Tags: cars electric vehicles emission rate environment global warming polar ice volcanic emissions

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Filed under: Green Environment on April 30th, 2007 • 580 Views