Dear Ms Hatt - What are you thinking?

Ms Anna Karin Hatt is a member of the same party as me - the Center party of Sweden. I have heard her in several debates over the year, and since she became minister of energy in Sweden I had hopes for more solar and less fossil fuels in government strategies. So what is Anna Karin thinking on these issues? A short excerpt from a question in the Swedish Parliament last week that I read at Kjell Alekletts blog::

Minister Hatt: "Regardless of where we live in Sweden we are dependent on efficient transport. What is important for me and the government is to take concrete measures and continue step by step to institute the Alliance’s energy and environmental policies so that by 2030 we can already have a vehicle fleet that is independent of fossil fuels. This will advantage both the Swedish economy and employment."

So, aren't those words nice you think? Well, I am not happy at all. Ms Hatt (inadvertedly?) rules out major change in the transportation paradigm as she focuses on existing technology - i.e. cars, buses, trains etc. It is a never ending story of not being able to think out of the box - a series of ministers and elected officials follows the same path in their thought processes. Ines Uusman, a former minister of IT in Sweden (as our current Ms Hatt is) said May 1996:

Minister Uusman: "Everyone talks about the internet but it is maybe passing and later the focus will be more specific"

Well Ines, Internet was a slightly bigger issue than you thought. So will the future mass transportation solutions be - much less cars, much more automation than Ms Hatt realizes. And the energy is the key - we don't need almost any fossil fuels at all, let's use the sun combined with intelligent storage such as hydro and other smart technologies. An old but still very valid video:

Germany offsets 20 Nuclear power plants by solar - but where is the press coverage?

Yesterday I read wonderful news from Germany. They just set a world record in Solar energy and were able to offset 20 nuclear reactors in two days by the combined output of solar power in the country. Way to go. But were are the headlines? I scanned Swedish and US mainstream media...nothing. The news came to me through this link but I find nothing at CNN, MSNBC, USAToday, Expressen, Dagens Nyheter - all major media players in Swedish national and US international. Weird. Russian Pravda is covering it, and few sites in Europe plus Reuters. That's it. I think people should be dancing and make the same amount of happy crazy noise as when their local sports team wins a major tournament. Well, as I wait for such things to happen I will instead be glad that we chose Berlin as the next place to promote Podcars and solar transportation for Podcar City 6 Conference

Image: Inhabitat.com

Image: http://info.cimetrix.com/blog/bid/31798/Windmills-solar-panels-and-the-effect-of-feed-in-tariffs

The Facebook Factor, Scientology, and a Piece of the Blue Sky

An enormous amount of people not only uses Facebook, but also believes that it is actually a tangible and valuable asset, solid enough to value it at 100 times its annual profit. It reminds me of Scientology - inflate x 100,000 the  low count of people actually really interested enough to pay for the "Teachings" (Scientology) / "Coolness" (Facebook), then sell it to a few celebrities (Scientology) / Mutual Funds (Facebook) that have the resources to pay for the inflated value and hope that enough common people are stupid enough to buy a Piece of the Blue Sky. In the case of Scientology that did not work so well, but Facebook, well, you guys are good.

In my work with a very tangible, yet still to some degree questionable new technology called ATN or Podcars, I am even happier today that I am able to see real value measurable in travel times, construction costs, low emissions and almost no accidents per passenger miles at all. I wish there were more energy put into real issues such as dysfunctional transportation systems - Imagine what hundreds of billions could do to a sustainable solar transportation system free of CO2!. I am the eternal optimist and believe that real care of the world we live in will eventually take precedent over yuppie wannabe billionaires and that the coolest thing in Silicon Valley is actually to change the world and not the car you put on the corporate parking lot at Google/Facebook/Apple (take your pick).

Image: The Dying Dandy by Dardel. Wikipedia: Dardel