Easier For Small Farm Populations to Live Sustainably

Samso is a small island off the coast of Denmark. This island has a population of 4,000 people and has a sustainable farming culture, much like the one that our guest speaker spoke of in his own life. The island utilizes wind turbine power as well as a few solar panels distributed throughout to provide for almost all of its energy. The island's farmers burn hay for heat in their homes in a non-polluting manner. The people of this island proclaim how they have wind power and thus they utilize it; they claim that other places can utilize a sustainable power suitable to their geographical location. Samso has undergone a self evaluation over the past 10 years to see whether or not they can be energy self sufficient. By standards energy experts say that in order to be seen as energy self sufficient the island must produce 2 watts per square meter of land; a marker which they just meet. The one problem that the island does run into is their dependence on some oil or gas for heating in homes. The straw cannot provide for the entire island. But other than this the island has found a way that works for them to live in a sustainable manner. All over the island people have come up with devices and mechanisms of extracting and utilizing energy in a sustainable manner. In one case a dairy farmer has even come up with a special pump for his cows milk that extracts the heat from the milk and then is used to heat his home! If these people can be so creative on this one small island...imagine how the rest of the world could be creative in producing new energy technologies! The possibilities are endless! There just needs to be a desire, if there is a will there is a way. It just takes little steps to start. Source:http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/30/world/europe/30samso.html