great! US court rejects class action status for Intel antitrust suit http://bit.ly/9acwER Good day!
14 minutes ago by bestwinnernet on twitter
TOP NEWS: iPhone 4 to ring in Singapore on Friday
ZDNet / News / Business
Pedal-powered Christmas tree lights Copenhagen
Summary
With international climate change talks a week away, host city takes its tannenbaum off-grid with a rack of bicycles powering LED lights.
Topics
tree, ceremony, global warming, climate change, new york times co., vips, climate change negotiation, light-emitting diode, entrepreneur, green technology
Events
IT Priorities 2010
Sydney, Australia - 27 Jul 2010
Melbourne, Australia - 28 Jul 2010
Mumbai, India - 4 Aug 2010
Delhi, India - 6 Aug 2010
IDC's Asia/Pacific Cloud Computing Conference 2010
31 Aug 2010
Marriott Hotel, Singapore
When you're the host city for international climate change negotiations, using energy-efficient LED lights on the Christmas tree apparently isn't enough.
The traditional Christmas tree in Copenhagen's City Hall Square will be powered by people, rather than a distant power plant. The square has been equipped with 15 bicycles which, when pedaled, light up the 700 LED bulbs on the tree.
The 17-meter-high tree went up last week during an opening ceremony in which Saint Nicholas climbed a fire truck ladder to the top of the tree and lit fireworks. Even during the ceremony, the lights were being powered by the bicycles, according to a representative from the city of Copenhagen. Children, a mayor, and international VIPs joined in the pedaling during the opening ceremony, he added.
The carbon-light approach to lighting the traditional Christmas tree is one of the attractions being organized for COP15, the latest round of international climate change talks, which start next week. The purpose of these meetings is to establish treaties to limit the amount of heat-trapping gases in the atmosphere.
Reuters has a list of the commitments under discussion during the negotiation, which include a goal of limiting global warming to no more than 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit) above preindustrial levels, a "threshold that many scientists see as a threshold for dangerous climate change".
Expectations that there would be a major breakthrough in Copenhagen have been low in part because the U.S. Congress has not been able to pass an energy and climate bill that would limit greenhouse gas emissions. But the past two weeks have seen a number of political twists, summarized at the New York Times.
All the political jockeying, though, could have a real impact on green technology and innovation. For the most part, green-tech entrepreneurs and investors are not betting on having a hefty price attached to carbon in the immediate future. Rather any climate regulations serve mainly as a signal that the economic system will find a way to create a financial incentive for technologies that reduce emissions.
Another important topic for discussion in Copenhagen is how green technologies will be transferred to poor countries, writes Earth2Tech.
This article was published as a blog post on CNET News.
Access data anywhere in the private cloud & enable entirely new efficiencies with EMC VPLEX.
Tech Vendor: EMC
Tech Vendor: EMC
Latest Stories
ZDNet Asia Live
Shocked! RT: @danielgoh: Oh really? RT @scoopsg: (zdnetasia) S'pore marketeers not chirping to Twitter's tune http://scoo.ps/dpkySs
17 minutes ago by mitchtan on twitter
Non-green IT products 'marketing suicide': By Munir Kotadia, ZDNet Australia on July 30, 2010 (8 minutes ago) Vend... http://bit.ly/aCqko4
27 minutes ago by OutsourceMethod on twitter
sg marketeers not chirping to twitter's tune http://bit.ly/aRAa1Y - baby steps baby steps
40 minutes ago by sashizoso on twitter
Non-green IT products 'marketing suicide': This 50-hectare eco-business park is described as a "living laboratory"... http://bit.ly/cEkDUD
41 minutes ago by BlissfulSeed on twitterNon-green IT products 'marketing suicide': At the same time, it seems vendors see green technology as a very high ... http://bit.ly/aCqko4
55 minutes ago by greentreats on topsy
Oh really? RT @scoopsg: (zdnetasia) S'pore marketeers not chirping to Twitter's tune http://scoo.ps/dpkySs
1 hour 8 minutes ago by danielgoh on twitter
@mrcolinlim but of course for more tech updates you can always visit zdnetasia.com
1 hour 33 minutes ago by t_phuck on twitterRT @zdnetasia: Searchable Facebook user data posted to Pirate Bay http://bit.ly/ciJQxY
1 hour 52 minutes ago by phyllis777loves on topsy
RT @HazelHassan: Facebook led police to Philippine serial killer -- http://ow.ly/2iGnh
2 hours 1 minute ago by mnajem on twitter
RT @zdnetasia: 10 questions to ask when http://www.zdnetasia.c...
2 hours 2 minutes ago by Zoomicon on twitter
RT @zdnetasia: S'pore marketeers not chirping to Twitter's tune http://bit.ly/bF2aoa
2 hours 6 minutes ago by ellsetan on twitterFacebook led police to Philippine serial killer -- http://ow.ly/2iGnh
2 hours 8 minutes ago by hazelhassan on topsy
S'pore marketeers not chirping to Twitter's tune http://bit.ly/dgUuGq
3 hours 10819 seconds ago by mattbnr on twitter
S'pore marketeers not chirping to Twitter's tune - Internet - News http://tinyurl.com/2bs...
3 hours 10851 seconds ago by HotAboutTV on twitter
S'pore marketeers not chirping to Twitter's tune: Marketing via Twitter has not picked up in Singapore, where it s... http://bit.ly/9GEDJS
3 hours 1 minute ago by OurAwesomeWorld on twittergreat! S'pore marketeers not chirping to Twitter's tune http://bit.ly/dotZES Good day!
3 hours 1 minute ago by bestwinnernet on twitterhttp://bit.ly/8v7Ov3 S'pore marketeers not chirping to Twitter's tune - ZDNet Asia http://is.gd/dSngs
4 hours 14459 seconds ago by easytweeting on topsyin the mean time, if you need to find PDF eBooks, you may use http://www.findpdf.us/
4 hours 31 minutes ago by findpdf on Researchers find workaround for Adobe PDF fixJust want to say what a great blog you got here! My appreciation of your work, cause i am an IT student also. Try this one too, http://w...
4 hours 39 minutes ago by winsource on Making the case for Filipino IT entrepreneurshipHi, We have ton of HP empty cartridges. Could you collect them in our office??
Thanks
Thanks Kenneth, for your insights. Good to know people out there can see the issue for what it is, and to do so impassively, that is. ...
2 days 37 minutes ago by yedwin on iPhone 4 shows prudence in procrastinationWhile I agree that the issues with the device have raised many an eyebrow, I think it's unwise to forget that many phone reviews have...
2 days 49 minutes ago by kennethkoh on iPhone 4 shows prudence in procrastinationThe online apple store http://store.apple.com/ is not available now. Maybe it's updating the pricing ;)
2 days 47 minutes ago by mingnow on iPhone 4 to ring in Singapore on FridayAfter an awful silence, finally the prices are out..
2 days 43 minutes ago by melvinchia on iPhone 4 to ring in Singapore on FridayGlad you discovered the Xfce 4.6 magic. Its other endearing feature is its phenomenal configurability. You can make the desktop look and ...
3 days 49 minutes ago by gnome_refugee on Smitten with Xfce 4yep, tried them all and xfce with compiz/emerald instead of fvwm is by far the best experience I've had. If you didn't know ther...
3 days 47 minutes ago by ggolemg on Smitten with Xfce 4@mingnow: why do you think so? How do you think the FOSS community could tackle this issue? I'm involved in a lot of efforts to get t...
3 days 53 minutes ago by fredericmuller on Taobao initiates Chinese open source revolutionGeez. I would think giving free books and getting kids to school would be a better place to start.
3 days 1 minute ago by mingnow on India's US$35 tablet--how low can it go?I think it's great the that country with the biggest internet population is finally contributing back to the open-source world. I thi...
4 days 48 minutes ago by mingnow on Taobao initiates Chinese open source revolutionhey.there Im Wendy from a PR Agency.I find your blog interesting and well written.In days to come,we would hold an event. Therefore We ...
4 days 18 minutes ago by wendy on iPhone 4 shows prudence in procrastinationIt could be done without all these. Just use the opacity addon of Compiz.
4 days 42 minutes ago by hariks0 on How to get RGBA support in UbuntuKeep Up With ZDNet Asia
Facebook 
RSS Feeds 
Newsletters 
Twitter Inside ZDNet Asia
Sponsored
Stop Waiting Start Switching to Juniper
Free Gartner Report shows it reduces costs and increases efficiency
What makes a hospital a smart hospital?
Download your copy of 'The Smart Hospital' Resource Kit to learn more
2010 IT Salary & Skills Report
Find out the salary range of IT professionals. Join activeTechPros for free access to the report.
Pedal-powered Christmas tree lights Copenhagen
How much fossil fuel was burned to harvest, process, transport, and prepare the food needed by the 15 peddling human power plants to expend the calories necessary to light the tree, I wonder? How much carbon dioxide is exhaled by the panting bicyclists? Could it perhaps be less than the fossil fuel and CO2 needed in a high-efficiency power plant to generate the handful of kilowatts needed by the LEDs? Does Denmark import electricity from any of France's zero-emissions nuclear power plants?