Uploaded on 2015-11-05 by EdithJ

Q1. Currently, natural Gas is the main source of energy, but it is followed very closely by oil. Q2. The natural gas which is produced is used mainly to use industry needs and, oddly enough, a very large category the Romanian chart call 'OTHER'. I suspect this 'OTHER' to be household requirements. Homes here are not well-designed and go up in hasty manners with the importance being placed on the outer look of 'wealth' as opposed to efficiency. This priority of look over make-up and durability is reflected in the choices made for materials, for workers and even for locations. The impression one gets is that someone with money decides one morning to build western looking homes in a rich part of town that will look expensive. Nobody is paying attention to how buildings will work together, which materials would be most appropriate, how long these houses will stand, how resistant they might be to potential earthquakes, etc. In a recent conversation I had with a 75 year old Romanian gentleman who was the chief city building inspector for Los Angeles, CA for 22 years, he told me that as he walks the street in our neighborhood (the fastest growing part of Bucharest) he cannot help but cringe and sigh because he can see that no planning and very little effort has gone into thinking about long-term issues around building, neighborhoods, or cities. He actually said he was happy he wouldn't have to live to see all these buildings fall apart. I have attached a photo of a building site right by my house that was a field in the summer. ![enter image description here][1]The houses are all going up at once and if you get close enough you can actually see how crooked things are- with the naked eye! The second photo I have included show you another home that looked just like the ones in the first photo only 7 weeks ago.![enter image description here][2] It now has a fresh coat of paint that makes it look 'modern' and 'western' and 'rich', so it will sell and people will be happy to show-off their new home, but I know what's under that paint and it's not something i would trust. Q3. Influencing policy in Romania right now would be a challenge as the country is faced with having to comply with EU regulations that they are not able to do yet. The country is facing demands and requests to change their sources of fuel, but also to participate in a greater number of economical exchanges with other nations which directs many of the decisions made. To take only one simple example, due to EU criteria the country needed to meet in order to join, Romania has had to develop a recycling program for inhabitants of the entire country to be able to recycle plastics, glass, metal and of course compost. We find ourselves, in a country, however, that has always had a tendency to re-use what they have the Roma community who live in different parts of the cities without being part of them, have relied on collecting the recyclable materials from people trash in order to make use of them. These are habits that need to change, but are doing so terribly slowly. Right now there are recycling bins everywhere, but people underuse them because they don't trust that the materials are going anywhere other than the dumps. There is a general mistrust in any type of change here, so policy changes even when made are not followed. In this context, I think the greater approach would be to campaign at the grassroots level i.e. directly with people, and then have these changes directly and openly connecte to spending or saving money. In Romania money is everything right now. IN a struggling economy every citizen is trying to find ways to spend less. If a campaign launched could include an immediate reward that would be given to people in cash or reduced from something they would need to pay the transformation will be instant and will stick. Creatures of habits don't do well with change, but if they change something the first thing they want to do is make it a habit again! Three quick projects I could see working here that have worked elsewhere: - Offer a direct money-back policy for anyone or any institution that install energy-saving lightbulbs. It may seem like a small change, but with a population of over 40 million, if homes and businesses and cities made such s switch, instantly the demands for energy in the 'other' category would see a drop which would affect the amount of gas needing to be produced. The money paid out to people would be outweighed by the costs of energy production and transportation of the energy in this country. - Reward individuals and companies (money-back policies, reduced taxes, better rates for energy consumed in the home or business) who choose energy-saving materials for their buildings. Again, getting people to buy better and make better decisions at the beginning will have a long-term effect on the overall energy savings. - Expand the public transportation in the cities. Right now Bucharest struggles with incredible issues of congestion and traffic jams because there are no reliable ways to travel from one end of the city to the other. The subway is limited only to the downtown core and the buses are irregular and few in number. Reducing how many cars are on the road would reduce energy consumption, but would also contribute to a better air quality which has started to be affected due to the great increase in the number of cars on the roads. There is much to do here and so much that needs changing. This discussion is interesting, but with a government that resigned 'en masse' yesterday because of outcries about security regulations not being respected and bribes being accepted for the cover-up of security issues in a bar that went up in flames this past weekend and killed 30 young people, this government is facing huge challenges that will need addressing before anything can be done about changing energy sources. [1]: https://edxuploads.s3.amazonaws.com/14467195957554356.jpg [2]: https://edxuploads.s3.amazonaws.com/14467197223719502.jpg