Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Swedes Burn Bunnies for Heat

The Swedes have taken the concept of biofuels to an entirely new level in recent weeks: culled rabbits are now being thrown into the furnaces to heat the colder parts of the country.

While burning rabbits for energy may not be the most popular concept for Americans, they do fit the requirements as a renewable energy considering their sexual reputation. And renewable energy is something the Swedes are very serious about.

The rabbits are shot by Stockholm authorities, frozen and then later thrown into furnaces. Hunting has been particularly good in the Fall as leaves no longer obstruct hunter's view of the little furry creatures, and Swedish news is reporting a good crop of 6,000 or so from the city's parks alone.

Oddly enough, at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation in Washington state, environmentalists are dealing with rabbit energy of a different sort. $300,000 was recently used to map out a swath of radioactive droppings from animals--mostly rabbits--who grazed grass at the site where the Manhattan project's plutonium was harvested. The pooh will later be picked up by hand to ensure the radiation doesn't reenter the food chain.

No news as to whether radioactive rabbits, or their waste, are on the Swedes to-burn list, but rabbit burning may be something for Australia to consider: the 10 billion rabbits introduced into the outback cause over 1 billion dollars in damage a year to the country's farms, something The Dingo will be touching on in later posts. If you can't wait, you can also catch it here.

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