Sunday, November 29, 2009

Tiring Environmental Crusade

An article on the BBC writes the EU Commission is to bring in standard labeling on car tires across the EU. Similar to the labels Europeans will be familiar with on consumer electronics, with A (green) to G (red) labeling. The labels assess safety, noise but also interestingly fuel consumption. The article states changing tired would be like taking 1.3 million cars of the road in Europe. Whilst it's brilliant steps are being made to help consumers choose better products (that can really help the environment), it's depressing that it has taken so long to happen. All of the above qualities would be desirable even if we weren't facing catastrophic climate change. I read a good article about that somewhere, will try and find it, but it basically asked why, if many of the things that we need to do to fight climate change are in themselves desirable (energy efficiency), is it not already happening. Basically, humans have limited information, many companies have little competition and so don't have incentives to become more efficient, and the issue of low hanging fruit, that companies will choose the easiest ways to increase revenue/lower costs first and that many energy efficiency projects take time to show yields. Will try and find article. In the mean time, use Ecofont!

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