A Clean Energy Revolution

Global Warming is one of the most urgent issue facing the entire world. The UN appointed Intergovermental Panel on Climate Change in its recently released report concluded that "most of the observed increase in globally averaged temperatures since the mid-20th century is very likely due to the observed increase in anthropogenic greenhouse gas concentrations via the greenhouse effect. Therefore efforts on a global scale much being immediately to reverse the increase of these greenhouse gases."
Though governments across the world are slowly coming on board to the science behind global warming, there is a Clean Energy Revolution that is being powered by private industries and educational institutions.
This past week Google launched its new strategic initiative RE "Less Then" C which stands for Renewable Energy Cheaper then Coal. The focus on this initiative will initially be to develop electricity from advanced solar thermal power, wind power technologies, enhanced geothermal systems and other potential breakthrough technologies. The goal of this initiative according to Google is to develop one gigawatt of renewable energy capacity that is cheaper then coal.(One gigawatt can power the city of the size of San Francisco).
Then there is this initiative called as Vehicle Design Summit, which is a global collaboration between the esteemed educational institutions on six of the seven continents. The goal of this project is to bring to market a super efficient hybrid plug-in vehicle which averages about 200 MPG with minimal life cycle costs and widely accepted in developing and developed countries. The vehicle is called VDS Vision 200 and the groups plans to unvile it by August of 2008. Each of the universities involved is responsible for developing a part/parts of this visionary vehicle.
Though these are some of the examples of the Clean Energy Revolution that is beginning to take shape, more needs to be done on a global scale to reverse the trend of global warming before it is too late. Each of us can contribute to this cause by being more energy efficent in our daily lives. Whether it is switching to energy efficient light bulbs or driving less, every bit matters.

To read more about Google's RE "Less Then" C initiative check out the link Google Goes Green
To read more about the Vehicle Design Summit project check out the link VDS