Author: valeriu

Defending Whales: Los Latinoamericanos van a la cabeza por la conservacion de las Ballenas

Posted by Samuel (in Anchorage, Alaska)

_MG_1753_Samuel_Leiva_430.jpg

Hola Todos

Antes que todo, quiero comenzar con la primera actividad que desarrollamos el Domingo 27 de Mayo. En una calida Anchorage, junto a alrededor de 300 personas se hizo una marcha por la defensa de las ballenas, donde tuvimos la presencia de muchas familias completas y algunas celebredidades de los muy conocidos show de TV, Heroes y That’s 70 Show, que nos acompañaron y participaron al termino de la marcha que rodeo el Hotel Captain Cook, donde se está desarrollando la reunión de la CBI. Al final de la marcha, la gente formó con sus cuerpos una ballena jorobada la que fue grabada y fotógrafiada desde el aíre. Para terminar con la Big Blue March, quiero decirles que está se desarrollo en 41 países en todo el mundo.

Continue reading Los Latinoamericanos van a la cabeza por la conservacion de las Ballenas…

eBay find for green freaks – a Hummer?

Filed under: , , , ,

I know what you’re thinking – the last thing that would belong on AutoblogGreen is a Hummer H2. But this is not an average H2 – this has a 6.6L Duramax diesel V8 cranking out 510 horsepower running on… biodiesel. Burning said fuel, it achieves 26 mpg fuel economy. Whether this is combined cycle, city or highway, the auction does not specify. Nonetheless, for a modest $68,995.00 Buy It Now, it can be yours, and you can be (mildly) green to the environment in style.

It was built by Mash Motors Inc., and has a newly assigned Kansas title because of the encompassing nature of the conversion. It used 99 percent GM sourced parts (so why can’t GM make it and sell it themselves?) and replaced the stock transmission with an Allison M1000 6-speed transmission with a selectable transfer-case (2HI, 4HI and 4LO). The interior has been left mostly stock, with the exception of the info-tainment system and of course the usual 12-inch subwoofer. The exterior has some extra chrome shiny goodness, but for the most part, you could call this a sleeper H2, in more ways than one.

[Source: eBay / Thanks for the tip, Cameron!]

 

Read | Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

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

May 23, 2007, marks a “mayday” call for all concerned citizens of the world?

Filed under:

This, although not strictly related to automobiles, strikes me as something that our readership might be interested in. According to current trends, researchers have theorized that May 23rd, 2007 – that’s right, just a few days ago, was the date when the world went from mostly rural to mostly urban. Now, when they pick exact dates like this, the statement is not meant to be taken entirely literally, but you get the idea. That means that over 50 percent of the world’s population lives in an urban setting. That might lend you to believe that people should need to drive less and use smaller vehicles for their travels, but we know that this is not the case. Perhaps we should say that people could drive less using smaller vehicles, but the masses choose not to, for the most part. Does that equal a distress signal to you, or no? It seems that most urban junk is ending up in rural areas.

If the United Stated had it all to do over again, knowing what we know now, might the landscape be a bit different? Could you imagine urban cities with electric charging stations at street corners instead of gas stations? How about well-designed mass transit options in large urban areas?

[Source: Gizmag]

 

Read | Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

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

Renault to offer Dacia Logans converted to LPG for free in Italy

Filed under: , ,

LPG (Liquified Petroleum Gas) cars are considered to be less polluting than gasoline counterparts. In countries like France, the UK or Italy, it’s even less taxed than gasoline or diesel. In some other countries, like Spain, it’s only available for professional drivers.

Dacia, the Romanian subsidiary of Renault, is offering a great offer for Italian customers. Not only they will be able to buy a 1.4 liter 75 HP car for less than 8,000 EUR but they will include the LPG conversion for free. This is possible because the Italian government helps motorists with 695 EUR to convert engines from gasoline to LPG and that’s the price Dacia Italy asks for the conversion which is be covered by the standard 2-year warranty. All Dacia Logans sold in the EU reach the Euro 4 emission levels with the help of sequential multiport injection.

The standard-engine has an unimpressive mileage 26 MPG (US) and 166 g of CO2/km (24 and 170 for the optional 1.6 liter).The Dacia Logan can also be purchased with a sturdy 1.5 dCi 70 HP diesel car good for 40 MPG and 125 g of CO2/km, albeit without particulate filter.

The Dacia Logan is a no-frills sedan which was once thought for emerging markets but they can’t cope with the demand in western Europe for cheap cars.

Related:

[Source: Dacia Italia via Yahoo Autos Italia]

 

Read | Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

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

Japanese gov’t to kick $1.7B toward developing cleaner cars

Filed under: , , ,

The Japanese Trade Ministry is going to provide $1.7 billion in assistance to local carmakers over the next five years to help them develop cleaner cars. They will kick in about $42 million a year toward developing better cheaper batteries for electric cars. The target is to get the retail price of electric cars down under $25,000 by 2010 and under $16,500 by 2020.

Additional funds will go toward reducing the cost of hybrid systems and hydrogen powertrains in order to make them mainstream. Currently fossil fuels account for nearly one hundred percent of transportation fuels but the government has set a target of reducing that to eighty percent by 2030.

[Source: The Auto Channel]

 

Read | Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

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

Let’s Talk About It!: Green Quandaries

Max admitted to a perpetual state of confusion yesterday, but when it comes to making the right choices for greening our lives, many of us feel the same way. We're surrounded by choices, particularly in how we spend our money, and more and more products and services are touting their environmental benefits. So, which is it: hybrid or high-mileage conventional vehicles? Biodegradeable disposeable products, or recycled ones? Paper or plastic?

Of course, we try to answer many of those questions here at GO (paper or plastic? Neither!). But, you may still be faced with decisions that put you in a quandary: you can see environmental benefits in both options, but aren't sure which choice is best. So, we've created a discussion forum for those green quandaries.

Throw your confusion out to the GO community: more than likely there's are members here who can help you make the best choice. Even if you get a discussion going, and there's no clear winner, you know more than you did when you started.

Thanks to GO member serenity_ii for the suggestion — it's a good one!

The Green Flashlight That Thinks It’s An Outlet

I've covered several solar gadgets here on GO, but it's important to promote the value of some kinetic energy-based products as well. One such cool device that I found while stumbling the green web is the Eco LED Flashlight.

Instead of having the shakes to produce energy (like most other eco-friendly lights out there) this product uses a zip cord. Simply pull the cord for about a minute — and voila! — you've got enough light for nearly half an hour. Pull longer, and that time limit goes up and up — to almost 45 minutes. Thankfully, the flashlight also comes with a car charger so your savings in batteries don't go towards physical therapy for your arm. Powering directly will yield you almost 3.5 hours of use. Did I mention it has a swivel head?

The good times don't stop there. Not only can all that physical exertion give you enough light to reenact The Blair Witch Project, but the power stored can also charge up any number of devices. The Eco LED comes with several adapters for PDAs, cell phones, and a host of other electronics. The 5 LEDs will last roughly 50,000 hours, so expect this flashlight to help you out where others have let you down.

For piece of mind in your glove box, boat, camping gear, or home, I'm not sure you can go wrong with this gadget. For $29.95, "zip" on over and pick one up!

Biofuels slowly taking off in southern Europe

Filed under: , ,

Whereas some European countries like Germany and Sweden are long-time fans of biofuels, southern European countries seem to need a little more help.

Portugal has announced a new tax exemption for national producers to help them being a strong player in the biofuel market. There are no Portuguese companies currently producing ethanol, most of it being imported from Brazil. In order to compete with cheaper sugarcane-produced ethanol, the Portuguese government has announced tax exemptions for corn producers to manufacture bioethanol. Galp, the biggest retailer of oil products in the country has announced that it can only sell Portuguese ethanol if the price is competitive against Brazilian. It sounds like a known story, doesn’t it? Galp is also planning to sell 100 billion tonnes (metric) of biodiesel in 2008 made from imported Brazilian or Angolan soyabeans. Plans are to reach 200 billion tonnes in 2009.

Portugal’s neighbor, Spain, is wishing to use more biofuels. Currently, the country is living a weird situation: demand of diesel is so high (currently 70 percent of the car sales are of diesels) that the country is exporting gasoline and importing diesel. Therefore the Government has plans to switch some of that demand to biodiesel, although 75 percent of raw materials should be imported. Current government plans wish for at least 5.75 percent of biofuels in 2010 and 20 percent in 2010. However, the Association of oil products operators of Spain has just claimed for some flexibility in the dates and the percentages. First, they want the power to decide if it should be biodiesel or bioethanol and then they claim for some flexibility in the dates.

Spain is planning to plant up to 400,000 ha (almost 1 million acres) to produce bioethanol, currently almost non-existent at Spanish gas stations. You can check availability and prices for all fuels in Spain by clicking this link.

[Source: Portuguese Ministry of Agriculture and Europapress via Econoticias.com]

 

Read | Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

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

The Air Car Can Blow You Away

Filed under: ,

If you inflate a balloon and place it on a little toy car frame and then release it, it will race across the room until the balloon deflates. That is essentially the idea of engineer Guy Negre of MDI in . Popular Science magazine reports he is working with an Indian company to put about 6000 Air Cars on Indian streets by August 2008.

In case you’ve missed the previous stories (see below), Mr. Negre is using a piston-type engine to extract the stored energy in the compressed air to drive the wheels. This makes elegant sense. Why do we combust air with fuel in an engine? To get high pressure, of course! Compressed air at 4350 psi is powerful! And it takes energy to raise air to that pressure level with is actually 290 bar (290 times higher) than atmospheric pressure. Stored gas pressure is like stored energy in a battery. You put it in at one time, and you take it out later. Gasoline and diesel engines put energy in (the fuel) and take it out at the same time.

Compressing air to 290 bar is a relatively straightforward task. Take a reciprocal compressor, power it up, fill the Air Car’s tanks in a few minutes, and then drive away. That takes energy, probably electric energy, to get that done. Petroleum use can be avoided but electric use is still needed. The car will even come with it’s own on-board compressor. Refilling that way should take about 4 hours.

The range of the vehicle is said to be 125 miles and it has a top speed of 68 mph. I haven’t gone through the thermodynamics of the full process but I gotta admit this is a pretty nifty way of circumventing petroleum use. If the compressor is green-powered (solar, water, wind, etc.), the Air Car will be too. And vice versa.

Related:

[Source: Popular Science, MDI]

 

Read | Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

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

Red, Green and Blue: Fair Trade?

Dider GentilhommeImage source: WikiMedia Commons: Photographer: Dider Gentilhomme

Editor's note: Fair Trade is a topic that GreenOptions.com has been covering for some time now, so we thought it might be interesting to debate from the progressive vs. conservative perspective. Brady and Alicia offer us some excellent background on the discussion. Now, it's Jimmy and Shirley's turn…

Jimmy: Although I am generally conservative on fiscal matters and would normally lean toward unfettered free trade, I understand the importance of Fair Trade to our country’s interest and as a humanitarian influence on the world. Fair Trade levels the playing field. Where we have certain standards for the treatment of our workers and environmental restrictions, while other countries do not; therefore, they have a competitive advantage. In circumstances where slave and prison labor is used to compete with American labor the need for Fair Trade standards is obvious. But what about circumstances where the cost of living in undeveloped countries is simply so much lower that this allows the country to clobber the US with low cost labor?

Free trade would seem only fair given willing workers and willing employers. Also many of our increasingly stringent environmental standards are a testimony of our wealth. Although basic health and sanitation standards are a must, do we hold other developing countries to the high environmental standards that only our wealth can support?

These are important questions that we will consider. Please add your thoughts as well so that we can determine what might be the best form of Fair Trade policy to live and support.