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How to fight Global Warming
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The 10 urgent measures to take in 2008 (l'Hebdo, january 2008)
I have translated the article "Economies d'énergie: Les priorités d'action", by
Natalie Bougeard, Elisabeth Gordon and Michel Guillaume, published in l'Hebdo, third issue, january 17, 2008.
I would like to thank the magazine l'Hebdo for letting me use
their text here.
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1. Make the Minergie standard compulsory for new constructions.
Started in 2003 this swiss standard obliges architects to respect some standards in matter of
thermal isolation, ventilation and heating of buildings. While cutting down heat losses, this
standard reduces by a factor four or five the mean energetic consumption. In Switzerland
more than 8000 public or private buildings (like individual houses) are already respecting
the Minergie standard. Amongst them the building of the federal institute for statistics in
Neuchatel or the new IBM building in Zurich.
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2. Make the buildings three times less greedy in kWh and make sure that three quarters of the
energy comes from renewable sources.
It is difficult to ask that the present buildings comply with the Minergie standard, the more so if they are old.
One can renovate little by little to diminish heat losses. The substitution of central heating with oil, with electricity
or with gas with heating systems with heat pumps, wood oven or solar energy (thermo-solar or photovoltaic) would reduce
our CO2 emissions.
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3. Heavily tax all new vehicles with a mileage above 6 lt/100 km and redistribute this money to owners of less greedy
vehicles and public transportation.
Like in the newly introduced french system, the idea is to tax big engines with an "eco-malus". Such
money is used to distribute an "eco-bonus" to the owners of small engines, which consume less fuel and
emit less greenhouse gases.
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4. Ban the import of cars with mileage above 5 lt/100 km.
This measure goes in the same direction than the previous one, but is much more restrictive.
Ban cars that consume more than 5 lt/100 km (corresponding to 130 grams of CO2 per km)
means the end of many cars: one could still drive a Smart, an Opel Corsa, a Mini Cooper D or a
BMW serie 3. But that would be the end of the Peugeot 607, the Audi A5, the Volkswagen Touareg,
not even mentioning the Porsche Cayenne and the GM Hummer.
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5. Conceive urban spaces that reunite houses, offices, shops and relax.
Urbanism could also help reduce the energetic bill. Lump together offices, schools, shops and relax centers
could reduce commuting times. In this respect England is a pioneer withe the construction of an entire
ecological suburb, Bed Zed (see the video). From
the conception of buildings to the public transportation system, everything has been planned to reduce
the CO2 emissions of the inhabitants.
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6. Massively invest in urban public transportation.
It is the necessary condition to limit the use of cars in cities. It's not just about multiply
busses and tramways, but also to make traffic much more fluid, so that people won't waste too
much time while commuting. In Lausanne sometimes it is faster to walk than to take public transportation.
In Fibourg busses divide the same lane with bicycles...they travel at the same speed!
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7. Adopt severe measures to reduce electric consumption, both nationally and internationally.
Washing machines, fridges, computers or TVs ... household electrical appliances, electronics and light
are greedy in electricity: they represent more than half of the total current consumption.
Since 2002 in Switzerland these products must wear a sticker that indicates the electric consumption
to guide the buyer. The "class A" products use on average 30 to 40% less electricity compared to the
"class D" prouducts.
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8. Encourage the communes to promote remote heating
This system gives the possibility for public buildings and individual houses to
get their heating from a common source. For example they could benefit from the "thermal waste" from
a nearby factory. Numerous communes have already adopted this system. In Lausanne the thermal plant
of Pierre-de-Plan warms up surrounding buildings. In Porrentruy an important remote heating plant (with
wood) warms up 1400 houses.
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9. Buy preferentially local products.
From the energetic point of view, to buy strawberries in winter, asparagus from Mexico or
Argentinean beef is an aberration when one thinks of the amount of fuel needed to provide
such produces to our dining tables. The swiss WWF informs that, for example, a bunch of
asparagus imported by plane from Mexico needs 5 lt of oil while only 0.3 lt are needed
for swiss asparagus. Always with the airplane, 1 kg of israeli strawberries uses 4.9 lt
of kerosene versus 0.2 lt for local strawberries! What is true for the food, is equally true
for most goods.
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10. Include the "ecologic costs" in the prices of products.
Based on the principle of "who pollutes pays", this measure is about
including in the price of a product the "ecologic costs". In other words,
the damage done on the environment in general - on the climate in parti-cular -
generated by the product during its lifetime (from its construction to its destruction).
Such measures would change many stickers, starting from plastic objects which would become
very expensive.
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