"Till human voices wake us, and we drown."

In Uncle John's Bathroom Reader last night, I read last night, about Denmark's energy independence:

A nation off the grid

In 1976 the Danish public got behind an ambitious (and expensive) program to become entirely energy-independent, and, with the development of new, clean energy systems, to get out of the foreign oil business completely. Some of the steps taken:

• Strict energy-efficiency standards were placed on all buildings.
• Gas and automobiles were heavily taxed. (Today new cars are taxed at more than 105% of the cost of the car.)
• "District heating systems" were implemented throughout the country, reusing normally wasted heat produced by power plants by piping it directly into homes. Today more than 60% of Danish homes are heated this way.
• The government invested heavily in clean and renewable energy systems, especially wind power. Today 21% of Denmark's energy production comes from wind farms. On top of that, they lead the world in wind-power technology—another product to export. The industry has created more than 20,000 jobs.
• Rebate campaigns helped people buy more energy-efficient—and therefore more expensive—home appliances. Today more than 95% of new appliances bought in Denmark have an "A" effiency rating ("A" is the best; "G" is the worst.)
• They started drilling for—and finding—more oil and natural gas within their own waters in the North Sea. (Showing that no plan is perfect, these efforts have long been opposed by environmentalists.)
• In 2005 the government committed $1 billion to develop and integrate better solar, tidal, and fuel-cell technology.

Would that other nations were so ambitious and determined, qué no?

Gitter dun, Denmark!