Sweden is set to build 2000 new wind turbines during the next ten years, as a part of its project aimed at dramatically increasing the country’s production of renewable energy – this was all revealed in a statement by Enterprise and Energy Minister Maud Olofsson on Tuesday.

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China is turning to ethanol-powered buses from Sweden to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions. An ethanol-powered bus made from up north – Sweden (the bus is the same color as Sweden’s flag) is seen on the streets of Beijing, capital of the middle kingdom.

An ethanol-powered environmentally-friendly bus can reduce greenhouse gas emissions and meet Euro-V emission standards. But, the 18 million people in Beijing will need more than just one of these buses, no?

China and India are the world’s biggest polluters these days. But, China is making an attempt…or so I feel from my reading. Yeah, the country could do more. Gosh, I could do more.

We wonder, how many more buses China is planning on buying from Sweden or otherwise?

Images courtesy of [Asianewsphoto]

There is always the eternal question of who do we exactly dub as a genius and what is the scale to measure and tag someone as a genius. While views vary widely, one of the most accepted theory is that and man who thinks way ahead of his time in his methods and approach, can be called a genius.

Taking that into consideration, you could surely call Swedish architect Bengt Warne a genius in the field of environment. It was way back in 1976 that Bengt built a home in a greenhouse in an effort to grow vegetables around his own home. Though, three decades after the initial prototype, the idea seems to be a catching one.

Scandinavian winters can be cold and unforgiving and while people have a separate greenhouse to grow vegetables and plants, Bengt’s design calls for building a greenhouse around your own home. With this innovative technique one not only manages space better but energy is conserved enormously. Energy consumption in the form of electricity is reduced by 50% with this method as the vegetation offers a natural insulation to the house and thereby reduces the necessity for artificial heating.

The idea is really simple, easy to implement and for 1976- way ahead of its time. Surely, we can adopt it three decades down the line! Check out the gallery after the break. (more…)

Scientists have found the (new) oldest tree in the world. It is a 16.4 feet tall spruce, found in Fulu Mountain in the Dalarna province of Sweden, that was carbon dated by Miami researchers to be 9,550 years old.

Under the crown they’ve also found four generations of spruce remains in the forms of cones and wood produced with the same genetic material, that date back 375, 5,660, 9,000 and 9,550 years.

Though spruce trees can create exact copies or clones of themselves multiplying with their root penetrating branches, so far scientists thought it wasn’t such a survivor.

Recent studies conducted in cooperation with the County Administrative Boards in Jämtland and Dalarna showed different and Leif Kullman, Professor of Physical Geography at Umea University, to declared “Our results have shown the complete opposite, that the spruce is one of the oldest known trees in the mountain range”.

The history behind this discovery, also revealed that the tree survived because of the generally cold and dry climate, few forest fires and very few humans. It also pointed out that the ice might have disappeared earlier than thought.

“My research indicates that spruces have spent winters in places west or southwest of Norway where the climate was not as harsh in order to later quickly spread northerly along the ice-free coastal strip. In some way they have also successfully found their way to the Swedish mountains,” Leif Kullman said.

Spruces are the species that can best give us insight about climate change.

Photo credits: Leif Kullman