Next Stop: Slovenia

The Green Bike Tour rides again Thursday, October 16th, 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 , or the Iowa Policy Project website .

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.