If possible, I avoid air. So it has been quite a long time, since I began reporting on the climate change issue here in Today’s News, over twenty years ago.
ten years ago, I went to the example, the train from Helsinki to Hanoi. Then I wrote a story for the DN:s resebilaga, about the climate and about what I experienced on the trip through Finland, Russia, Mongolia and China.
this time was my researchresa on Europe’s prehistory. But the climate issue was still evident. For example, when a Serbian archaeologist tensed eyes at me and told me about Europe’s first farmers. It was in a museum in the village of Vinča, outside Belgrade, where they have dug out the continuous layer from the time when agriculture first arrived to the area for over 8,000 years ago. These early farmers immigrated to the Balkans from the present Turkey and Greece, probably to a large extent to the climate in the eastern Mediterranean had become too hot and too dry for their lifestyle.
”the Climate was a very important factor when people moved. Just as in the day”, said the archaeologist.
An official from the Swedish embassy in Belgrade came with to Vinčamuseet. He thought it was hilarious that the archaeologist la so much force on to explain the importance of the climate issue, considering how much I have written on the subject over the years. About the science, about the IPCC reports, that climate is our time the great question.
to reach forward with the knowledge. There has been disinterest. Indifference. Direct resistance in the form of denial and misinformation.
Therefore, it feels overwhelming to see the breakthrough of the opinion that Greta Thunberg has now managed to achieve. On Friday rallied millions of young people around the world.
”Stick to the science.” ”Listen to the scientists!” ”Read the IPCC and the paris agreement!” It is Gretas message.
Do it! Read the IPCC reports! Large parts of the Swedish translation of the environmental protection agency.
not only was the day when all these young people demonstrated for climate. It was also the day when the environmental protection agency presented its information to the government on how Sweden can reduce its net emissions of greenhouse gases to zero by 2045.
An important aim is that domestic transport should reduce its emissions by 70 percent by the year 2030. A big part of the solution, according to the proposal, is that the transportation should run on electricity instead of fossil fuels.
On the train between Berlin and Copenhagen on Wednesday, I got into conversation with a young German researchers in electrochemistry. He had just finished writing a doctoral thesis on fuel cells, i.e. those that are powered by hydrogen reacts with the oxygen in the air. Now he would to China and work on a chinese car company.
I tried to press him on possible weaknesses with the technology.
the Biggest challenge, he acknowledged, is the precious metal platinum. It is needed for the catalysts. A car driven by fuel cells require today four times as much platinum as conventional automobiles. But he would probably be able to halve the amount. ”It will be still twice as much as today’s cars,” I said. ”Sure,” he said, ”but the fleet still need to reduce by at least half”. Then the consumption of platinum was unchanged. Important is of course that all the platinum is recycled.
is a few years ahead in time. But the young German could very well be right in that the hydrogen technology in the long term is more promising than battery-powered vehicles.
Not least, would the fuel cell fit perfectly on all trains today are powered by diesel or coal.
To go from air to rail is a big savings for the climate, often the biggest savings an individual can make. But about 26 years, when Greta fills the 42, we have come down to zero net emissions. Then of course, it is best if all the trains are powered by electricity from renewable sources.
With the voluptuous Venus and the dancing Fanny
Also, the old Europe had their characters
after all, We are unique in a few areas,
