EU Now Banning ‘Energy-Hungry’ Home Appliances – Ban on ‘larger size vacuum cleaners’
Another European Directive That Really Sucks…EU Now Banning “Energy-Hungry” Home Appliances
The EU is now in the process of taking away larger size electric appliances from consumers, saying they consume too much energy. Small appliances are enough for the citizens.
EU banning “energy-hungry” vacuum cleaners
Incandescent light bulbs have already been removed from the shelves. Next being removed are larger size vacuum cleaners. Germany’s online flagship daily the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ) reports: “Beginning September 2014 in the EU only vacuum cleaners that consume less than 1600 watts may be sold. From 2017 only a maximum of 900 Watts will be allowed.”
Hat-tip: DirkH
The FAZ writes that the ban was very quietly passed by Brussels some weeks ago, going unnoticed by the public.
Vacuum cleaners will also carry a sticker informing the consumer of the appliance’s energy efficiency rating. The EU thinks it can save energy by forcing consumers to buy only small appliances.
Whether the intrusion by the state will have an effect on overall electricity consumption remains a question. Smaller vacuum cleaners will only mean that housewives (and many husbands, of course) will have to spend twice as long vacuuming to get the house clean, and so may end up using even more electricity. This is the latest eco-justified intrusion by Brussels into the free market and the private lives of citizens.
What’s next?
To be fair, the FAZ does write that the manufacturers of vacuum cleaners have pretty much accepted the law without protest, as most cleaners are already below the 1600-watt limit. However, a couple of high-end vacuum cleaner manufacturers, such as Vorwerk, are resisting.
The FAZ writes that not only light bulbs and vacuum cleaners are targeted for higher efficiency, but also an entire range of appliances. This is all in the wake of the European Ecodesign Directive, which will go into effect on November 1st for clothes dryers. “For condensation tumbler dryers, the weighted condensation efficiency must not be less than 60 percent.”
This latest additional government encroachment into private lives is necessary, European bureaucrats think. Citizens have to stop wasting and it’s past time to rescue the planet from dangerous climate change, so claim the nannies in Brussels and other European capitals. It’s all for our own good.
How could people ever accept being treated like irresponsible children who need to be nannied 24 hours a day? Surely if a poll …
Gaia In Action: Coral Reefs Have Inbuilt Mechanism That Adapts To Local Temperature – ‘Can release chemical that helps them engineer their environment and stave off warming’
Gaia In Action: Coral Reefs Have Inbuilt Mechanism That Adapts To Local Temperature
http://www.thegwpf.org/gaia-action-coral-reefs-inbuilt-mechanism-adapts-local-temperature/
New research has found that coral can release a chemical that helps them engineer their environment and stave off warming.
Coral reefs are on the receiving end of the battering ram that is anthropogenic climate change. With their vibrant colors and exotic fish, they’re the poster child of ocean degradation, and they get a lot of attention because they’re on the front lines—their habitats are among the most sensitive to the warming waters.
But new research, led by Jean-Baptiste Raina, has found that coral are fighting back: coral can release a chemical, dimethylsulphoniopropionate (DMSP), that helps them engineer their environment and stave off global warming.
When DMSP is released to the environment, bacteria living in the water convert it into a different related gas, dimethylsulphide (DMS). DMS, the scientists say, can control the local climate by spurring clouds to form. More DMS means more clouds, and more clouds means cooler ocean waters for the coral to live in.
The discovery marks the first time that an animal has been found to produce DMSP. Previously, scientists thought it was the algae living in the coral that made the gas, but the new research found that the coral itself can churn it out. And, perhaps more importantly, corals’ DMSP production goes up when the coral gets stressed.
The idea of “DMS-as-climate-regulator,” says Hannah Waters for her blog, Culturing Science, “rose to fame when it starred in one infamous Earth-as-organism idea—the Gaia hypothesis—just a few decades ago.”
The Gaia hypothesis, pitched by James Lovelock, is largely bunk (sic), but dimethylsulphide’s effect on the temperature is not. “In order for clouds to form, water has to transition from a gas to liquid—and to do that, it needs a small particle in the air to adhere onto, known as a cloud condensation nucleus. Sulfur aerosols, which are easily formed from DMS, do the trick,” says Waters.
Full story
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Global Sea Ice Area Highest This Millennium, Approaching An All Time Record High
Global Sea Ice Area Highest This Millennium, Approaching An All Time Record
Global sea ice area is the highest this millennium, is approaching the highest area ever measured, and has been above normal for most of 2013. arctic.atmos.uiuc.edu/cryosphere/timeseries.global.anom.1979-2008 The Washington Post reports that the poles are melting at an alarming rate. At the Poles, Melting Occurring at Alarming Rate
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