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RE: China has launched the first fully electric zero-emission cargo ship in the world!
Yeah, we are living in a very exciting time when it comes to sustainable technologies! Thanks for the comment, @kate-m!
What is your favourite sustainable technology? Some of mine are the very simple cheap ones that can revolutionise lives in developing countries, like solar cookers, solar thermal water heaters (i.e. black tubing), solar air heating (drink cans painted black), plastic bottle interior lights , rocket stoves and so on. Even though electric cars and so on are very cool obviously :)
Small and functional sustainable solutions like the ones you are talking about are really nice! However, they alone won't really make a big difference in terms of combating climate change. I do think governments and NGOs need to find solutions to reduce emissions, and stuff such as solar and wind energy will most likely be a huge part of this.
I'm really looking forward to when solar panels can become cheaper, and produce less emissions during creation. Once we're all using renewable energy, we can start to focus on the smaller problems that we also need to solve in order to become more sustainable.
Thanks for your insights, Kate! :)
I guess I like the small artisanal solutions because they are accessible and therefore directly relevant to my life. Like I could actually have the skills and the funds to make that happen. And because it's so amazing that really poor people can access a lot of them and make immediate impacts on their standards of living. And I guess, umm, how to put it, it's like "developing" countries aren't destined to follow in the footsteps of more industrialised nations, they can choose to do things differently, and distributed sustainable technologies could definitely contribute to something different! I mean it would just be a blooming disaster if they followed the same pattern as indutrialised countries. Big industrial solutions, whilst really cool and interesting and obviously important for climate change, just seem a wee bit abstract to my own personal sphere of reality. Like the electricity that comes into my house, it's hard to even know where that comes from, was it coal/air turbine/hydro/nuclear??? Who knows, it's just a soup reduced to pie-chart reports every now and again. The big industrial developments in sustainables do make pleasing good news stories though!
Yes, I've been keeping an eye on solar panels too! It does seem that we are coming closer to having much more distributed energy systems which would be awesome!
That's a good point! I tend to think of these challenges and problems on a large scale, so I often forget about the small things each and every one of us can do to stop/reduce the climate change!
I guess electricity source really depends on the political regime of the country or state you live in. I feel lucky to live in Norway where most of our energy comes from hydroelectric sources. This is not very harmful for the climate if done correctly. Ironically we pump up oil here to sell to other countries who do not produce their own sustainable energy.. Really stupid, but a lot of the people here love the money it brings.
Anyway, I also hope the developing countries follow their own pattern instead of following the destructive example the current industrial countries have set.
Oh waow, beautiful Norway. Is it a great place to live?
Oh yeah, it's very lovely here. We of course have some issues, but all countries do. However, it's a perfect place to live if you enjoy nature :)
Exactly! One of these years I hope to drive around Europe in a campervan, I'd definitely put Norway on my route. I would want to do some walking around the fjords and maybe take a stereotypical picture of me perched on some crazy overhang rock high up above a lush landscape, that's what everyone does isn't it? He he, in Ireland the thing is to go to Templebar and get drunk and not remember half of what happened (as in the one thing that all tourists do!).
Yep, that's pretty much what every tourist here does! But it's really nice, so it's worth it ;)
If you come to Norway, then don't expect to get drunk too often! You would not believe how crazy expensive drinking alcohol is here. Regular bars does charge you $11-15 per 0.5L of beer!