Of all the countries I have visited or lived in, perhaps with the exception of Sweden, Germany seems to at least express the biggest concern for energy efficiency and green topics. It is not a coincidence that the German green party gets around 15-20% of the popular vote in elections these days. While my English neighbours think thin secondary glazing is very advanced (admittedly, they may not be representative of the whole country), one of my German friends is now building a carbon-neutral house that will be so well insulated that even in the icy Munich winter it won't need heating - which is good as it will not even have a heating system. Annoyingly, even the cellar will be so well insulated, that it will be as warm as the living area, which means they may need a second, separate cellar; but then Moritz is not a big wine drinker.
Anyway, even the notoriously efficient Germans are not doing nearly as well as they could, and my carbon balance has been totally ruined by work travel. Compared to that an efficient wine cooler is a lesser sin... ;-)
In reply to One thing I realized while by Lesley
Of all the countries I have
Of all the countries I have visited or lived in, perhaps with the exception of Sweden, Germany seems to at least express the biggest concern for energy efficiency and green topics. It is not a coincidence that the German green party gets around 15-20% of the popular vote in elections these days. While my English neighbours think thin secondary glazing is very advanced (admittedly, they may not be representative of the whole country), one of my German friends is now building a carbon-neutral house that will be so well insulated that even in the icy Munich winter it won't need heating - which is good as it will not even have a heating system. Annoyingly, even the cellar will be so well insulated, that it will be as warm as the living area, which means they may need a second, separate cellar; but then Moritz is not a big wine drinker.
Anyway, even the notoriously efficient Germans are not doing nearly as well as they could, and my carbon balance has been totally ruined by work travel. Compared to that an efficient wine cooler is a lesser sin... ;-)