Filed under: EV/Plug-in, On Two Wheels

The strange, peculiar bike-looking thing you see above, will outsell by three times even the most optimistic sales projections of cars in China this year. It in fact accounts for a third of all electric vehicle sales. Yes, the electric bike has rapidly become one of the most popular modes of transportation in China in the past few years.

The reason for this is ease of use, low sale price and high savings. For the most part, people in sprawling cities do not need to travel very far, so this has been a boon to Chinese urbanites. They have been on the rise from selling 7.5 million units last year to a projected over 10 million this year. A former R&D leader for GM says that this is “the dawn of a new era in electric bicycles,” according to Peter Fairley writing in Spectrum.

Still, is America ready to lose a couple wheels? While they can be a lot of fun making speeds of 20 kph or more, Ed Benjamin, vice president of the Light Transport Division at electric-propulsion-technology firm WaveCrest Laboratories LLC, in Dulles, Va., says we don’t know yet what we’re going to do with them. Read the article at the read link.

[Source: Peter Fairley / Spectrum; Thanks for the tip, Kert!]

 

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BOLD MOVES: THE FUTURE OF FORD Step behind the curtain at Ford Motor. Experience the documentary first-hand.

Off The Grid Homes
We Want Solutions!
Global Peace Index – The Texture of Peace
Ban Considered On Organic Food Brought In By Air
Can Nanotechnology Be Good For Climate?

(more)

(Posted by David Zaks in News and Views at 8:13 PM)

Posted by Dave (live from the International Whaling Commission in Anchorage, Alaska)

Well, it’s all gone weird here – a resolution, proposed by New Zealand, and backed up a plethora of other countries, for Japan to stop its lethal research in the Southern Ocean has been passed by the IWC. Of course, Greenpeace supports this!

Continue reading Our reaction to the JARPA resolution: Japan’s whaling censured…

Filed under: Etc., MPG

I am sure that you have seen various gadgets being sold that claim to increase your fuel mileage. I won’t mention any names, but some of them make rather dubious-sounding claims which have never been verified, yet they remain on the market. Some of them have even been tested by the EPA, and have not fared well. This turns out to be nothing new, as you can see from this test that was run all the way back in 1968. Here are the gadgets in question:

• THE GT ENERGY CHAMBER
• THE GAS-O-MISER
• OCTA-GANE
• ECON-O-MISER
• FIRE INJECTORS
• SOLAR VOLT SUPERCHARGER
• GANE AIR FLOW NEEDLES
• GAS SAVER CHAMBER

So, did any of them work? I guess you’ll need to read the article, now won’t you? But, you can probably guess the answer anyway!

[Source: The Olds Zone via Jalopnik]

 

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BOLD MOVES: THE FUTURE OF FORD Step behind the curtain at Ford Motor. Experience the documentary first-hand.

Filed under: Etc., EV/Plug-in, Green Culture, Hybrid, MPG, Volkswagen

Aside from diesels and their new direct injected gasoline TSI engines, Volkswagen hasn’t exactly been on the cutting edge of alternative powertrains and even the diesels are using BlueTec emission controls licensed from Mercedes-Benz. To date VW hasn’t shown any hybrids, electric vehicles, fuel cells or other advanced vehicles that are destined for production. They are apparently planning a hybrid version of the Touareg but the TSI and DSG gearboxes are the limit for now.

So in lieu of actual new alternative products they are embarking on an advertising campaign in Germany to promote their green credentials such as they are. The thought is that they haven’t adequately promoted the efforts they have made such as the lat 3L Lupo which was canceled after several years of poor sales. The new campaign will feature VWs in nature such as a red ladybug Beetle and will also emphasize technologies like TDI, TSI and DSG. They will also connect the ads to the upcoming launch of the Passat BlueMotion.

[Source: Just-Auto – Sub. req’d]

 

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BOLD MOVES: THE FUTURE OF FORD Step behind the curtain at Ford Motor. Experience the documentary first-hand.

Filed under: Etc., EV/Plug-in, Green Culture, Hybrid, MPG, Volkswagen

Aside from diesels and their new direct injected gasoline TSI engines, Volkswagen hasn’t exactly been on the cutting edge of alternative powertrains and even the diesels are using BlueTec emission controls licensed from Mercedes-Benz. To date VW hasn’t shown any hybrids, electric vehicles, fuel cells or other advanced vehicles that are destined for production. They are apparently planning a hybrid version of the Touareg but the TSI and DSG gearboxes are the limit for now.

So in lieu of actual new alternative products they are embarking on an advertising campaign in Germany to promote their green credentials such as they are. The thought is that they haven’t adequately promoted the efforts they have made such as the lat 3L Lupo which was canceled after several years of poor sales. The new campaign will feature VWs in nature such as a red ladybug Beetle and will also emphasize technologies like TDI, TSI and DSG. They will also connect the ads to the upcoming launch of the Passat BlueMotion.

[Source: Just-Auto – Sub. req’d]

 

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BOLD MOVES: THE FUTURE OF FORD Step behind the curtain at Ford Motor. Experience the documentary first-hand.

Filed under: Etc., Hybrid

PSE&G stands for the Public Service Electric and Gas company. They just released plans to reduce their CO2 emissions as a company by 81,000 tons in the next 10 years. They quite admirably have resolved to spend $100 million on this project.

Like any good plan, it’s a multi-step process. The first part is replacing as many vehicles in their fleet as possible with hybrids, reducing both emissions and gasoline consumption. They will invest in hybrid cars and light trucks for lighter-duty tasks, which, since PSE&G supplies utilities to three quarters of the population of New Jersey, will make a big difference. To cover heavier maintenance tasks, they have already purchased and are awaiting delivery of a pair of hybrid-powered bucket trucks (the ones with the man-sized bucket on the end of a lift arm for accessing power poles). While testing these for reliability and safety, they are retrofitting 450 of their current bucket trucks to electric power. This will enable them to shut off their engine while operating the lift for roughly three hours a day that would otherwise have been spend pumping 73,000 tons of CO2 into the air, and burning 6.5 million gallons of fuel. The majority of these trucks have already been retrofitted to run on biodiesel since 2003, which has already cut CO2 emissions by 7,700 tons.

Ralph LaRossa, PSE&G president and chief operating officer, said in a statement that, “Action cannot be focused solely on energy, if we are to make progress in combating climate change.” Keep up the good work, Ralph.

[Source: PSE&G]

 

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BOLD MOVES: THE FUTURE OF FORD Step behind the curtain at Ford Motor. Experience the documentary first-hand.

Nothing is more personal than food. It forces us to make decisions every day that have real and immediate impact, which means learning about what we’re eating and figuring out how to make good choices is essential. As environmental issues move to the forefront of public consciousness, the meaning of a good choice doesn’t just have to do with a food pyramid or a nutrition label, but with knowing where your food came from, how it got to you, and who was involved in that process. Food is one of the primary subjects with which we deal when talking about backstory, since it’s one of the most accessible means of understanding the life of an item prior to its arrival in your hand. In many ways, food is also one of the best and easiest places to push for a change in that backstory, whether calling for different conditions for the producers, demanding a change in a product’s contents, selecting a new source, or deciding to grow your own. It’s also becoming more common for schools to offer healthier food in the lunchroom and better education in the classroom (or the school garden), setting kids up at a young age… (more)

(Posted by WorldChanging Team in Food and Farming at 5:36 PM)

Nothing is more personal than food. It forces us to make decisions every day that have real and immediate impact, which means learning about what we’re eating and figuring out how to make good choices is essential. As environmental issues move to the forefront of public consciousness, the meaning of a good choice doesn’t just have to do with a food pyramid or a nutrition label, but with knowing where your food came from, how it got to you, and who was involved in that process. Food is one of the primary subjects with which we deal when talking about backstory, since it’s one of the most accessible means of understanding the life of an item prior to its arrival in your hand. In many ways, food is also one of the best and easiest places to push for a change in that backstory, whether calling for different conditions for the producers, demanding a change in a product’s contents, selecting a new source, or deciding to grow your own. It’s also becoming more common for schools to offer healthier food in the lunchroom and better education in the classroom (or the school garden), setting kids up at a young age… (more)

(Posted by WorldChanging Team in Food and Farming at 5:36 PM)

In the Northeast England town of Middlesbrough, a summer-long community project is about to ensue, during which over 1,000 town citizens will demonstrate the potential for a self-sustaining food supply through small-scale urban agriculture. The project is a part of dott07 (of which Worldchanging ally, John Thackara is Program Director ), a year-long series of community projects, events and exhibitions focused on achieving regional sustainability and exploring how design plays a part in the process. The Urban Farming component employs design through a collection of garden containers of various sizes placed throughout Middlesbrough, which effectively install an edible landscape in the town’s public spaces. That landscape also becomes interactive and encourages community engagement as participants work on their plots throughout the summer. The thousand urban farmers come from a diverse array of local institutions and organizations, including “primary and secondary schools, preschool groups (Sure Start), residential homes, allotment associations, mental health units in local hospitals, and residents’ groups…”. Over the course of the growing season, the urban farmers will hold week-long events to harvest, prepare and eat their goods, working with chefs to create recipes, and then distributing them on postcards. In addition, a design team will create a map… (more)

(Posted by Sarah Rich in Food and Farming at 2:00 PM)