Tiny Tuvalu vows to go green
By Susan Wilson
The tiny country of Tuvalu, only 10 square miles, has stated that it will get rid of fossil fuels and use solar energy and wind energy for all of its power needs. The country that lies between Australia and Hawaii in the Pacific Ocean, is 15 feet at its highest peak. Without adopting green technology and drastically reducing its greenhouse gases, the Country may wind up disappearing altogether.
The Telegraph reports that this small island nation has set a goal of being carbon neutral by 2020. The nation is composed of four islands and five atolls. Most of Tuvalu is only three feet above sea level with the highest point being 15 feet. Needless to say, fears of rising oceans caused by global warming pose a definite threat here.
The Country’s economy is composed mainly of farmers and fisherman with very little if any industry to speak of. Flooding in recent years has reinforced fears of rising sea-levels if global warming continues at its recent pace. If changes aren’t made soon, the Country may literally drown.
Since the entire gross domestic product (GDP) of Tuvalu is only $14.94 million, the nation has to rely on foreign aid to accomplish its goals. Already the Country has received funds for one solar project “set up by the e8, an international nonprofit organization of 10 leading power utilities from G8 countries, and funded by two Japanese power firms.”
The project added 40 kilowatts of solar panels to the top of the largest football stadium. The solar array supplies five percent of the electricity used by the nation’s capitol of Funafuti. This five percent displaced 17,000 liters of fuel shipped in from New Zealand in a little over a year. A reduction in greenhouse gases was achieved not just from burning less fuel, but also less greenhouse gases shipping the fuel.
Future projects will require foreign aid as mentioned above. The next project, which will extend solar power to the other islands will require $800,000 for 46 kilowatt solar array to be placed on the roof of a secondary school.
Tuvalu’s aspiration to become carbon neutral won’t really make that much of a dent in the amount of greenhouse gas in the atmosphere but the hope is that it will spur larger countries like the United States to become carbon neutral as well.
If a country that relies on foreign aid and expertise for achieving its environmental goals can become carbon neutral than why can’t larger countries that can have the technology, expertise and money necessary for implementing green goals get it done?
Yeah, yeah, we’re in a worldwide economic slump and larger countries don’t run the risk of sinking if changes aren’t made but don’t nations like the United States have a responsibility to smaller nations like this? Damning a country to extinction because it might impinge on our lifestyle seems immoral.
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Read more entries by Susan Wilson.
Stumble It!
July 23rd, 2009
Sure, we’re in an economic slump. But think of the jobs – engineering/design, manufacturing, selling, installing, servicing – that would be generated in the move to an alternative energy society. Some would displace traditional energy jobs but many would be new.