A nobel heir looks to energy saving in the modern world

[OKIsItJustMe]

http://nationmultimedia.com/2008/05/24/headlines/headlines_30073862.php

GLOBAL WARMING

A nobel heir looks to energy saving in the modern world

By Kamol Sukin
The Nation
Published on May 24, 2008

Nobel Charitable Trust chairman Dr Micheal Nobel urged the Thai government, businessmen and media to put energy saving as the top priority to fight global warming.

"Energy efficiency is today's solution, the cheaper and more practical one," he said yesterday during a meeting with Thai businessmen in Bangkok.

Dr Nobel is a grand-nephew of Alfred Nobel, founder of the Nobel Prize, and has received a number of awards including a Unesco medal and the Albert Einstein Award. He is now campaigning on energy and environmental issues, particularly global warming.

"Compared to another potential solution, alternative energy, energy saving is a lot more practical and we can do it immediately if we're committed," he said.

Wind, solar and other alternative-energy sources have technical limitations that make it difficult to take a significant share of the world's energy consumption, he said.

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[DCKit]

1. Conservation is a hell of a good starting point.

Dropping a country's energy needs by 30-40% right off the bat is a great way to set it up for alternative energy development. But I don't agree (and never will) that wind, solar and wave power have no merit, or that there are even any technical limitations on their implementation. We can build giant steam turbines for coal plants, but we can't build windmills? C'mon.