Residents of the EU can now have their cars scrapped, for free; carmakers are responsible, and the goal is to have 80% of the vehicle reused. I'm shooting off an email to my congressman, Jim McGovern, to advocate that the US adopt a similar law.
In the US, Walmart, of all companies, is pushing energy-saving fluorescent light bulbs and hopes to sell 100 million by the end of 2008.
On Grist, an interview with Ed Begley, Jr., green-living celebrity.
My personal green news is a 6-month update on my Toyota Prius. My mileage has dropped to between 44 and 45 miles per gallon (44.6 exactly, today) due to the temperature drop and, according to my mechanic friend Mark, the reformulation of winter gasoline. I was getting 49 to 52 MPG during the summer. I can't tell you how the car drives in the snow, because we haven't had any. Today it was 46 degrees as I returned a few errant Christmas gifts, and I heard on the radio that it is supposed to be in the 50s on Thursday. I saw on Suburban Guerrilla that it was 57 degrees in Vienna, Austria today, their warmest temperature ever recorded on this date in over 150 years.
Here's what the National Weather Service is reporting about our freakily warm winter:
RECORD EVENT REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE TAUNTON MA
600 AM EST MON JAN 01 2007
...WARMEST FINISH OF ANY YEAR IN BOSTON...
...WARMEST DECEMBER AND WARMEST NOVEMBER-DECEMBER COMBINATION
RECORDED AT BOSTON/S LOGAN INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT...
THE AVERAGE TEMPERATURE FOR DECEMBER 2006 WAS 41.1 DEGREES IN
BOSTON. THIS BEATS THE PREVIOUS RECORD OF 40.7 DEGREES SET IN 1990.
THE NORMAL DECEMBER MONTHLY AVERAGE TEMPERATURE IS 34.8 DEGREES
WITH A DECEMBER 2006 DEPARTURE OF +6.3 DEGREES.
IN ADDITION...THE COMBINED AVERAGE TEMPERATURE FOR NOVEMBER AND
DECEMBER 2006 WAS APPROXIMATELY 45.1 DEGREES. THIS BEATS THE
PREVIOUS RECORD OF 44.6 DEGREES SET DURING THE COMBINED MONTHS
OF NOVEMBER AND DECEMBER 1990.
THERE WERE 19 CONSECUTIVE DAYS WITH ABOVE NORMAL AVERAGE
TEMPERATURES FROM DECEMBER 10TH THROUGH DECEMBER 28TH AND
24 DAYS ABOVE NORMAL AVERAGE TEMPERATURES IN DECEMBER 2006.
OFFICIAL RECORDS HAVE BEEN KEPT SINCE 1872.
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