Dennis Leaf: "Reduce your energy consumption now!"

For Earth Day 2001 the Institut Dr. Flad was able to welcome Mr Dennis Leaf, representative of the United States Environmental Protection Agency, EPA, on tour through various German towns promoting the idea of Earth Day.

The USA's view on environmental issues has been vividly discussed recently for the Bush adminstration refused to sign the Kyoto treaty - and Mr Leaf showed that he was very well aware of the key role of the USA in the global challenge of environmental preservation. Problems like the greenhouse effect needed a combined effort of all nations round the world, the United states could not allow some outsider to set up rules for what may become a major challenge for the American economy.

 

Dennis Leaf, representative of the Environmental Protection Agency

The still rising energy consumption, in the States as well as in other countries of the world, was identified as the key problem which has not been solved yet. Hence it should be far more efficient to reduce the amount of energy needed, rather than to develop and apply techniques to deal with the waste produced. Mr Leaf introduced the "Energy Star" program as one possible way to deal with the dilemma: The EPA supports and promotes the development and the use of all kinds of technical equipment that uses energy more efficiently. Varios states have already agreed to rules regulating the energy consumption of washing machines or other household appliances. Billions of Dollars have already been saved through this initiative - a good example for a creative and sustainable development.

During the discussion with students of both year groups 50 and 51 the question arose why alternative forms of energy do not yet play an important role in the USA's energy schedule. In answer to that Mr Leaf stated that technology is not yet able to provide energy for every day appliances but that again a different perspective may proove successful: newly designed cars, for example, much lighter but still safe to drive, allow a combination of both a petrol driven and an electric motor.

Mr Leaf ended his enthusiastic presentation with an appeal to the younger generation: Do what you can with what you have where you are - but do it - and do it now!

---

Nach seinem Besuch im Institut Dr. Flad erhielten wir diesen Brief von Dennis Leaf, in welchem er eine positive Bilanz seines Besuches zieht.