Today is World Blog Action Day

Posted on October 15, 2007 by C Johnson
Culture

Today is World Blog Action Day. This initiative to focus the Blogosphere’s attention on the issue of the environment is the first such one of its kind. The aim is simple: to get as many of the countless legions of bloggers around the globe to publish just one post today (Monday 15 October 2007) that deals with the environment. The subject of the post is up to the individual blogger as Blog Action Day has no political agenda to speak of. And so we interrupt our regularly scheduled blogcast to talk about …
Scandinavia.

While the current surplus of Apocalyptic environmental documentaries with dramatic Enigma soundtracks are sobering and affecting … I’m hopefully not alone in saying that I’m rather tired of this obsession with focusing on the situation, and would rather people spent more time (and money) focusing on tangible, practical solutions.

The Washington Post recently published an absorbing article about a small, sleepy Swedish town called Vaxjo—a place that has cut CO2 emissions by 30 percent over the past 14 years and is right on schedule to meet their target of cutting emissions by 50 percent by 2010. The ultimate goal? Becoming completely fossil fuel free within the next few decades.

The Post states that the “initiatives taken at the local level being introduced across [Europe] often influence national policies instead of the other way around.” There’s a lot to be said for taking matters into your own hands instead of waiting for legislation to do it for you. For example, at the Vaxjo power plant, fossil fuels have been replaced with sawmill wood chips … in turn ashes from the furnace feed the forest. Vaxjo city streetlights are all energy efficient, and the city proudly features all-wood apartment buildings—saving the energy of producing steel.

Copehnhagen is another living guide for aspiring green-conscious cities, mainly thanks to a mid-90s switch from coal to biofuel and natural gas at their energy plants. Heat generated from power plants is pumped through an 800-mile network of pipes that heat 97 percent of homes and offices in the city. Copenahgen’s next step is a $38 million dollar spend to promote bike peddling rather than gas peddling—although admittedly, biking initiatives have been launched in several other Continental Metropolises and have been met with varying degrees of success.

And sure, yeah, I know: no two cities are alike and admittedly cities like LA or New York can’t exactly implement the identical measures that Copehnhagen or Vaxjo have for all too many reasons.

But the fact remains that these two cities are actively proving that helping the environment is something more than just a fashionable cause … more than just a possibility … for Copehhagen and Vaxjo, it’s a reality.

For more on practical steps towards greener living, check out Metropolis Magazine’s new October issue. It’s chock full of information about industry’s “green leap forward.”)

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