The inhabitants of the Danish island of Samsø used to produce 11 tons of carbon dioxide emissions per person annually. They heated their houses with oil brought in on tankers, and imported electricity via cable, generated by burning coal.
That was a decade ago. Now the community of 4,300 people produces enough clean energy to export.
Elizabeth Kolbert is staff writer for The New Yorker, and wrote about her visit to Samsø to find out what an island about the size of Nantucket might teach the world.
This segment is part of Word of Mouth's Next Green Thing series.
(Photo by Nicky Bonne)
