[Sustain] German Green speech

[Jeanne]

I went Thursday to hear a talk on international cooperation re climate 
change by a Dr. Alfred Fuchs, a German Green who is in this country to 
assume the lead in a Washington-based foundation on climate change.  It 
was a fairly standard "got to do something about climate change" talk, 
except that he emphasized government policies that would bring market 
forces to bear on the problem, an emphasis one doesn't often hear from 
American Greens.  He also focussed more than I am used to on soil 
degradation.

At the reception afterward, I got talking to Olof Hansen of the EPA, who 
has been working with the city on the biofuels from waste fats and oils 
project.  So I asked him our question about toxins in the portion of the 
raw material that they intend to scrape out of the sewers.  He was 
rather nonplussed, then asked what kind of toxins I had in mind.  Well, 
I wasn't sure either, so I said, "How about heavy metals?"  He replied 
that in general that was not a major issue in SF, because we don't do 
much manufacturing.  He went on to say that restaurant waste would 
constitute the vast majority of the raw material, to the tune of 10 
million gallons of oil per year.  And since restaurants usually pay to 
have the stuff hauled away, they are happy to donate it to the city. 

FYI

Jeanne

-- 
Jeanne Rosenmeier
415 751-0901