Sweden

Driving the speed limit, for fun and profit! [VIDEO]

What if you had a chance to win the lottery -- just by driving responsibly?

Reducing urban water use around the world with compost toilets

Theodore Roosevelt once noted "civilized people ought to know how to dispose of the sewage in some other way than putting it into the drinking water." But that's what we're still doing every day.

How one Swedish city gets people to trade silly car trips for bikes [VIDEO]

A clever public health campaign in Malmö, Sweden, is getting people onto bikes by making them feel silly for driving short distances when they could bike instead.

10 green royals

What comes to mind when you think of royalty? Luxurious palaces, the Queen of England, and overused puns on Marie Antoinette’s infamous one-liner? How about chemical-free gardens, recycling, and sustainable seafood? Ruling families from around the globe are using their media magnetism and sovereign sway to draw attention to a variety of eco-causes, fighting climate […]

The Climate Post: Pools of oil, plumes of gas

First Things First: The Washington-to-Beijing diplomatic shuttle shows no sign of slowing down. Energy Secretary Steven Chu and Commerce Secretary Gary Locke visited China this week to prod collaboration on clean energy technology. Chu announced the U.S. would contribute $15 million to a partnership that will study how to capture carbon dioxide emissions and trap […]

Sweden’s ozone layer thickest in decades: institute

STOCKHOLM — The ozone layer over Sweden was thicker in February than it has been in decades, the Swedish meteorological institute SMHI said on Tuesday. Measurements taken at SMHI’s station in Norrkoeping, just south of Stockholm, showed the ozone layer was at its thickest in February since recordings there began in 1988, with a measurement […]

Swedish company to warm buildings using body heat

The legendary hotness of Swedes is now useful for more than getting dates. Calls to the French Embassy about plans for using the famous Gallic "icy superciliousness" for air conditioning were not returned by press time.

Each country will have to find its own way to carbon neutrality

Thankfully the lay press has finally stopped calling for the United States to follow Brazil's lead for energy independence. The blogosphere took over where the lay press left off on that misdiagnosis, although I still hear the echo once in a while. Turns out, Brazil may be heading for an energy crunch of its own. According to this article in the Economist, Brazil may be experiencing blackouts within five years if the economy grows as predicted.

Because they are fat with rivers, they plan to build more dams, which is one of those damned damned if you do dam, damned if you don't dam situations. Apparently they already get four-fifths of their energy from dams, and there are still lots of rivers to tap. Wind, solar, and geothermal power don't enter the discussion -- I suspect because they are not as cheap.

But then there was this:

An entire nation of sexy beasts

There is a large amount of literature discussing the "Resource Curse" (sometimes called the Oil Curse, but established before that for silver, gold, etc.), in which countries blessed with an abundance of a desirable resource often turn into kleptocracies ruled by thugs.

Oddly, countries like Japan and Taiwan, with few (if any) local resources, often soar because their cultures build in a premium on efficiency ...

It appears that Sweden -- while not as resource poor as many others, but certainly not as resource rich as most other developed nations -- enjoys the same advantage.

As my adviser used to say as we struggled with our designs, "Uh-oh, out of money -- time to think!"