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The Green Bike Tour rides again Thursday, this
time in the European nation of Slovenia.
This is the sixth year since 1999 in which David Osterberg,
executive director of the nonpartisan Iowa Policy Project, has led
renewable energy enthusiasts on two-wheelers to illustrate the
benefits and potential of sustainable energy technology.
As in past tours — which included a widely publicized foray
through northern Europe in 2002 and other efforts in the Midwestern
United States — bicyclists will visit renewable energy facilities,
this time in a region of Slovenia just beyond the Italian border.
“This is the second Green Bike Tour that visited Europe,”
Osterberg said. “Slovenia is not among the leaders in renewable energy
in the European Union and bringing attention to the renewable
resources available here may help push the government to be more
aggressive. My students are excited about making a statement for clean
energy that helps contain global warming.”
Joining Osterberg on the tour will be students and professors from
the School of Environmental Sciences at the University of Nova Gorica
in Nova Gorica, Slovenia.
“We are happy to have our students participate in promoting
renewable energy in Slovenia,” said Mladen Franko, head of the School
of Environmental Sciences. “Students everywhere must realize that
global warming is a threat to their future. They must take some action
and also involve the general public to contain this world problem.”
Osterberg, a clinical associate professor of occupational and
environmental health at the University of Iowa, is on a temporary
teaching assignment this month at the school. Professor Franko has
organized the Thursday tour to cover about 15 miles of that region of
Slovenia, including a hydroelectric dam north of Slokan on the Soca
River. Riders also will meet with representatives of GOLEA-Goriska, a
Local Energy Agency, which promotes renewable energy sources and
systems as well as wind energy.
A professor at the university, Romina Rodela, was excited about
the potential for the tour.
“I have studied policy making here and in England,” Rodela said.
“When citizens get interested in an issue, politicians and policy
makers do as well. The Green Bike Tour might spark interest in
sustainable power here in Slovenia because students are involved.”
For more information about past Green Bike Tour events, visit
<http://www.greenbike.org/>, or the Iowa Policy Project website
<http://www.iowapolicyproject.org>.
The Green Bike Tour 2008 is sponsored by the Iowa Policy Project,
the University of Iowa’s Environmental Health Sciences Research
Center, and the Fred & Charlotte Hubbell Foundation.
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