On Clean Energy, China Skirts Rules

In the book Hot, Flat & Crowded, one of the author Tom Friedman's focus is on China and green energy.  This is a great approach to what many people including Friedman wants: the greener world and industries.

CHANGSHA, China — Until very recently, Hunan Province was known mainly for lip-searing spicy food, smoggy cities and destitute pig farmers. Mao was born in a village on the outskirts of Changsha, the provincial capital here in south-central China. 

Now, Changsha and two adjacent cities are emerging as a center of clean energy manufacturing. They are churning out solar panels for the American and European markets, developing new equipment to manufacture the panels and branching into turbines that generate electricity from wind. By contrast, clean energy companies in the United States and Europe are struggling. Some have started cutting jobs and moving operations to China in ventures with local partners. 

According to the article, Changsha used to have a "smoggy" stratosphere. Now Changsha, or China is changing. The big red country of manufacturing and monster factories are slowly becoming more friendly with the whole earth. At this rate, China might catch up with U.S. and out run the green energy race. I am eager to see China reforming their cities to be more green. Because it is China, that would be a great, big step to the greener earth and world economy.

Germany Extends Nuclear Plants’ Life

In the book "Hot, Flat, and Crowded" by Thomas L. Friedman, Friedman demands the alternative, and greener energy in order for better life on earth, and to reduce our "addiction" of gasoline or "fuel from hell."

  

BERLIN — The German government has decided to extend the life spans of the country’s 17 nuclear plants while alternative energy sources are developed, a move that is also likely to create windfalls for both power companies and strained government coffers. 

The decision comes at a time when several European countries, including Italy and Sweden, are reconsidering long-held policies against nuclear power, not only to develop new sources of energy but also to combat climate change.

The greener energy, eco-friendly culture is not only the common people's pop culture but it is the newest international solution to many problems we are facing today and we will face tomorrow. In Europe, this new culture seems to flourish, and the government is very cooperative. One of the new green energy with many potentials is the nuclear power. It is the energy that was once rejected by the U.S. government. As the nuclear power spreads more, there is a possibility that the U.S. government will think twice about this type of energy. Although, Italy and Sweden are considering a long held policies against the nuclear power, the nuclear power has no carbon amission. It is something definitely better than gasoline yet it is something that should be strictly controlled. 

Greener Facebook?

In Thomas L. Friedman's writting, Hot, Flat and Crowded, He scolds pollution and demands better environment for our future generation. This is another unique approach to his wish.

Environmental activist organization Greenpeace just won’t get off Facebook’s case for planning to invest in a data center facility that happens to be powered by “dirty coal-fired electricity.” The latest development is that the Greenpeace Executive Director Kumi Naidoo has sent a letter to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg asking him to reconsider its planned facility in Prineville, Oregon, which uses power from Pacific Power. As evidence that Facebook SHOULD be interested in this issue, Naidoo points to the Facebook: Unfriend Coal page, which actually has close to 600,000 followers right now. Greenpeace appears to be wanting to guilt Facebook into reconsidering its position by pointing to what other huge forces in cloud computing are doing right:

“Other cloud-based companies face similar choices and challenges as you do in building data centers, yet many are making smarter and cleaner investments. Google, for instance, entered into a long-term agreement with a large wind power producer earlier this month. It has demonstrated that it is not only possible to prioritize the purchase of clean energy, but prudent as well.”

Facebook is something that symbolizes our flat world. If you have a computer and internet connection, talking to anybody in the world is no problem. Facebookis one of the cloud-based companies, very popular, having more than 500 million users. Facebook using a dirty coal electricity is in fact shocking and unexpected since the main trend of the day is "eco-friendly". If Facebook goes by Greenpeace's suggestion, this would be a great advance, knowing that Facebook is a huge company.

When Rare Earths Get Rarer

In the book, Hot, Flat, and Crowded, by Tom Friedman, he encourages green technology, something that will free us from oil/gasoline dependency and for a better environment and future.

During the summer break, China’s commerce ministry cut export quotas for so-called rare earth elements by 72 percent for the second half of this year.
This has serious implications. Rare earth elements are playing a rapidly growing role in our drive toward a high-tech, low-carbon economy, in everything from batteries for hybrid and plug-in cars to catalysts in energy-efficient light bulbs.
The rare-earth element terbium, for example, can cut the electricity demand of lights by up to 80 percent, while fractions of dysprosium can significantly reduce the weight of magnets in electric motors. Rare earth elements also have found military applications.
China holds the largest reserves of rare earths and is responsible for over 95 percent of their current global production. Beijing is well aware of the importance of these strategic resources. In 1992, Deng Xiaoping noted that “the Middle East has its oil, China has rare earth.”

This is very interesting and exiting, knowing that China is a big, big manufacture in the world. If China succeeds at this green technology plan, because it is China, the the whole world can benefit greatly from it. This can expand our possibility of energy use and other researches of green technology. This is another stepping stone for low-carbon, high tech economy which the world desperately needs.