Plans floated for factory and workers: Thinking about solar

Southern Times Messenger
Wednesday 12/3/2008 Page: 1

THE MITSUBISHI factory should manufacture solar electric cars, the inaugural Adelaide Thinker in Residence Professor Herbert Girardet says. "Ultimately for low density cities such as Adelaide, every second car should be an electric car, that's feasible," said Prof Girardet, an urban ecologist who returned for the recent International Solar Cities Congress.

He said car companies globally were starting to produce electric cars and with 900 Mitsubishi workers now looking for jobs, SA could be poised to move into sustainable manufacturing. Prof Girardet said solar panels on home roofs or wind turbines in backyards would be used to charge an electric car when not in use. "It's a little bit utopian but that type of world can be within our grasp now in a matter of five to 10 years," said Prof Girardet, a prolific documentary maker, writer and director of programs at the World Future Council.

He said cheap solar energy was only five years away as demand had already soared for cheaper, mass-produced silicon needed for solar panels. He said if Adelaide could halve its carbon emissions of 20 tonnes per person, it could still reach his 2003 Thinker's target of becoming a world leader in sustainability in 10 years. He said electric cars would substantially reduce carbon emissions - currently at 20 tonnes per person - but more could be done by retro-fitting all suburban homes and office buildings.

Professor Girardet also is calling on Adelaide children to help save the environment. Prof Girardet is promoting Kids Call, where children from all over the world send letters to political leaders asking them to consider the environment. These letters would be taken to the powerful G8 Summit, in Japan, this July. "We are trying to get kids to write letters to decision-makers... to tell them that they should take seriously their responsibility for future generations," said Prof Girardet, SA's inaugural Thinker in Residence and the World Future Council's director of programs.

"Decision-makers, politicians keep making short-term decisions and their messing up the future of our children and grandchildren," he said. "Hopefully we'll be able to team up with some organisations locally to get a lot of letters sent." The G8 summit is an annual meeting of the eight leading industrialised nations: Germany, France, the UK, Italy, Japan, Canada, Russia and the USA. Other political leaders also attend.