Europe
Northern Europe in general and Germany in particular are kicking ass.
Contents
General News
Swiss Showing the World How to Take on Pay Inequality A growing movement. Switzerland is one of Europe's richest countries but does not have a minimum wage law. But growing public activism over pay inequality since the 2008 financial crisis has already led to two referendum drives on CEO pay. In March 2013, Swiss voters overwhelmingly passed one of the world's strictest controls on executive pay, forcing public companies to give shareholders a binding vote on compensation. Voters ignored the business lobby's claim that such curbs would undermine the country’s investor-friendly image. Next month, November 24, a separate proposal to limit monthly executive pay to no more than what the company's lowest-paid staff earn in a year, the so-called 1:12 initiative, faces a popular vote. Now, on Friday, Swiss activists submitted over 130,000 signatures to the Swiss Parliament likely forcing another referendum - this one to create a new law guaranteeing all Swiss nationals a basic income of CHF 2,500 a month ($2,756 US). 10/13.
Germany
Book of the Year: Clean Break, the Story of Germany's Energy Transformation -- and What Americans Can Learn From It. Germany's plan is not infallible, of course, nor is it alone in its goal to operate on 80 percent renewable power by 2050 -- Scotland recently announced its intention to become 100 percent renewable by 2020. download ebook.
Germany gets half their power from solar. 1/13
History of how they came to be so green.
Timeline of Green Party inspired by Ecotopia by Callenbach. (More on novel).
Even that commie rag the Wall St. Journal says green is good business.
| Germany has so much wind energy, they’ll pay you to take it | |
| 10/7 | How much will switching to renewables raise your utility bill? How about NEGATIVE ALL OF IT? In Germany, wind and solar projects have regularly been generating so much surplus energy that utilities are paying consumers to take it off the grid. High winds -- although not that high, only 15 mph -- led to negative-price wind energy for nine hours on July 24, bringing Germany's total to 31 hours of below-zero-cost energy this year. More |
| Germany to Phase out Nuclear Power | |
| 5/31 |
Germany's coalition government has announced a reversal of policy that will see all the country's nuclear power plants phased out by 2022. The decision makes Germany the biggest industrial power to announce plans to give up nuclear energy. Environment Minister Norbert Rottgen made the announcement following late-night talks. Chancellor Angela Merkel set up a panel to review nuclear power following the crisis at Fukushima in Japan. There have been mass anti-nuclear protests across Germany in the wake of March's Fukushima crisis, triggered by an earthquake and tsunami. More |
Swedish co-op creates a stake for women in wind industry. Qvinnovindar members individually invested anywhere from 500 to 300,000 Krona ($77-46,000) each, giving them an equal vote in how the company is run, regardless of the amount they put in.
Denmark’s Samso Island, in 1998, population 4,000, won a national contest with a bold plan to completely switch to renewable energy. In just ten short years, the island has achieved its goal of becoming carbon-neutral. Residents use wind, sun — and even rapeseed oil — to power their homes and cars.
Bjork's on a quest to see Iceland take back its geothermal resources. see also here.
PBS Global Focus special segment on Denmark, which bought wind energy industry the US abandoned and is now the world leader. Includes segment on Samso Island, which is now carbon neutral after ten year effort. More.
Italy
[Green Nobel Prize won by Rossano Ercolini, Italy]. An elementary school teacher, Ercolini began a public education campaign about the dangers of incinerators in his small Tuscan town that grew into a national Zero Waste movement.
