It wasn't all bad
In 1996, the city of Vaxjo, Sweden, resolved to wean itself off fossil fuels. Today, its greenhouse gas emissions are down 30 percent and Vaxjo is on track to cut them 50 percent by 2010. Most of the reduction has been achieved by replacing oil with wood chips at the main heating and power plant; the ashes are dumped in the forest as nutrients. “People used to ask, ‘Isn’t it better to do this at a national or international level?’” said Henrik Johansson, Vaxjo’s environmental controller. “We want to show everyone else that you can accomplish a lot on a local level.”
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