by Kontau in Beijing.

I was standing behind the stage when Imogen Heap, Nadirah X, Greenpeace guitarists and Chinese rock musicians joined together to perform the song “Go Green”. Thousands of young people were waving their hands with the peace sign, and singing along the chorus “Go green, Greenpeace!” This was truly the most memorable moment of my Greenpeace life.

Continue reading When Greenpeace rocks Beijing…

Amish Are Ultimate Early Adopters of Solar Energy
Spain to Require Recycling of Tyres Into Roads
New Biofuel From Trees Developed
Carbon Tax ‘Won’t Hurt’ the World’s Poor
Combating Climate Change: Building Better, Wasting Less

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(Posted by David Zaks in News and Views at 9:46 PM)

Filed under: Hydrogen, Transportation Alternatives

If the cost of a fuel cell-powered car like the Honda FCX or Chevy Sequel is too steep for you budget but you want to go with hydrogen, you can try the Hydrocell bike. The bike was developed by a British company called Valeswood Technology Development uses a metal hydride storage tank integrated with an alkaline fuel cell stack.

The bike holds 40 liters of hydrogen which is enough to propel the bike about sixty miles. Apparently the bike is now available for order for about $1,400 although the Valeswood site doesn’t have any detailed information. If it works, I’d probably be more inclined to by one of these than pay a similar amount for the Mercedes bike.

[Source: TreeHugger]

 

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

Filed under: Chrysler

Being cut from the Daimler family doesn’t mean Chrysler isn’t moving forward on their green auto initiatives. One announcement from the Chrysler Group this past week is that the company has chosen Metaldyne for a multi-year contract for “environmentally-friendly exhaust manifolds for future vehicle platforms.” It’s not a new li-ion battery contract or something earth-shaking, but it’s something.

The lower-emission manifolds are intended to help Chrysler vehicles meet PZEV (Partial Zero Emissions Vehicle) requirements in states that follow California’s emission standards. Metaldyne is a subsidary of Asahi Tec. By heating the catalytic converter quickly, exhaust gases mix faster in the manifold’s single-wall design. There is also “a secondary air system that injects ambient air back into the cylinder head during cold start conditions. The ability to mix the exhaust gases at a higher rate and the use of the air injection system reduces emissions when a driver starts his or her vehicle,” as Metaldyne puts it.

Related:

• Chrysler to highlight fuel economy in new round of dealer ads
• If Daimler dumps Chrysler, what happens to diesel supplies?

Source: Metaldyne

 

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

Filed under: EV/Plug-in, Hybrid

It appears that Magna Steyr wants to expand their horizons in the wake of losing the BMW X3 assembly business. At the Advanced Automotive Battery and Ultracapacitor Conference (AABC), Battery Systems Product Manager Peter Pichler announced that series production of Magna’s lithium ion battery packs would be in production in 2009. The initial packs will use cylindrical cells while packs with prismatic cells would enter production in 2010. The first packs for mild hybrids will be air-cooled but full hybrid packs will liquid cooled. So far Magna has used cells supplied by Saft but other cell manufacturers will also get a chance.

[Source: GreenCarCongress]

 

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

US President George Bush today issued an executive order directing the Environmental Protection Agency and the Departments of Agriculture, Energy and Transportation to work together to begin developing regulations that will reduce gasoline consumption and greenhouse gas emissions from motor vehicles, using the President’s 20-in-10 plan as a starting point. More… The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is proposing criteria for certifying vehicles as clean and energy efficient to guide states that choose to allow such vehicles in high occupancy vehicle (HOV) lanes even when the vehicles have only one occupant. More… The US Environmental Protection Agency has scheduled two public hearings in May of 2007 to take public comments on the California Air Resources Board’s 21 December 2005 request to implement a greenhouse gases reduction measure for motor vehicles. More… Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, in partnership with the Los Angeles City Council and environmental leaders, unveiled GREEN LA—An Action Plan to Lead the Nation in Fighting Global Warming. More… Mayors and business executives from around the world are meeting in New York this week for the C40 Large Cities Climate Summit to discuss actions and projects to tackle climate change, including the reduction of transportation congestion. More… Transport… (more)

(Posted by Mike Millikin in Transportation at 10:47 AM)

Worldchanging is featured in today’s New York Times Magazine with a profile of Alex Steffen — one of six featured innovators. This week’s magazine is all about “Ecotecture,” and the current state of environmentally-minded building and design. The photo was taken in Seattle’s green and gorgeous LEED-gold City Hall.
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(Posted by WorldChanging Team in Team at 10:29 AM)

Filed under: Emerging Technologies, Etc., Oil Sands

There is a ridiculously small number of people who have had their lives transformed into a movie. There number of people who have seen their lives spun into a nine-minute corporate commercial is even smaller.
Billed as “A story inspired by real events,” the Shell Films commercial “Eureka” has been available for a while, but I hadn’t seen it until this month’s WIRED arrived. The issue is polybagged with a copy of the film on DVD. I figured I could spend nine minutes of my life I’ll never get back on the agitprop, and let AutoblogGreen readers know if it’s worth their time. It’s not.

The film isn’t poorly filmed or executed in any way – I’ve been to enough film festivals to know that it’s easy to make uninspired short films – it’s just not really fun to watch a well-lit press release. I’ll summarize the film – with spoilers – and also put the YouTube stream of the movie (the clip above is the trailer) in case you want to decide for yourself after the jump. You can also watch the film over on the Shell website.

Related:

• Cal Poly wins Shell Eco-Marathon with 1,902.7 mpg!
• Shell exec says oil companies must work together with car companies
• Guess who made $1,252 a second, every second last year?
• Shell plans to quadruple Canadian oil sands production

[Source: Shell, WIRED, YouTube]”Eureka” is about Jaap van Ballegoolien, a shell engineer, and his troubled son (apparently, his trouble is that he stays out late and tries to call his father who works on the other side of the works thanks to Shell). We also meet a semi-ignorant, idealistic reporter (look, she wears dress shoes to talk to a meeting with our roughneck Shell oil engineer/hero. How darling). Thanks to her suggestion that he take time away from the problem – trying to squeeze every last bit of oil from already-standing oil platforms – he returns home to Amsterdam and takes his son out for a burger and milkshake. Bingo presto, an idea is born. Or should I say “eureka.”

The film tells us that the “Snake Well” as invented by Jaap van Ballegoolien, and his team, is now being used in Shell’s Champion West Oil Field in Brunei. The inspiring message from this discovery: keep using your oil, we’ll find ways to drill it. In the film, van Ballegoolien says, “I thought of calling it [the Snake Well] the ‘bendy-straw’ drill. The beauty of this technology is that it means fewer wells, which means less disruption and less waste. Prolonging the life of oil fields across the world, whilst we continue developing alternative energy sources.” Where’s the DVD of that process? You’d think by making $4.37 billion or so in profit per quarter, there should be money in the budget, no?

 

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

Most of us have a fairly narrow view of what it means to recycle: we gather materials (aluminum, paper, glass, plastic) in blue bins and either leave them on the curb for a pick-up service, or take them to a drop-off point. British site How Do I Recycle This? takes a much broader view of the concept — essentially merging reuse and recycling — and provides a forum where users can submit there own ideas for getting more use out of items that most of us would throw away without a second thought.

If you don't live in Great Britan, don't let the UK URL, or location of publishers Louisa Parrry and John Leach, put you off: there's very little in this blog's many posts that applies only to Brits or Europeans. Furthermore, don't expect the tried and true reuse projects that many of us did when we were kids (i.e., making bird feeders out of milk cartons) — the range of materials and recycling/reuse ideas at How Do I Recycle This? is quite eclectic. Some of the more unusual items:

• Foam pizza/garlic bread bases
• Tablet/pill blister packs
• Shed pet hair
• Dead electric razors
• Old potatoes

Parry and Leach post new items on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, and users are welcome to submit suggestions (whether they've successfully reused or recycled them item themselves or not).

The most impressive aspect of the site is its focus on harnessing the ideas of its users: Parry and Leach do offer their own suggestions when they have them, but every post is geared towards gathering ideas from readers. This is Green Web 2.0 in a pretty pure form: anyone can contribute their "authority" on the subject. While some items require an explanation of regulations for safe disposal (i.e. CFLs), the majority of the "trash" listed on the site encourages a free and creative exploration reuse possibilities.

"How Do I Recycle This?" has been online since April, 2006, and appears to have recently grown in its offerings — as recently as April, most posts appeared at the end of the month. I have no doubt, though, that the site's readership will keep it in "junk" that can find a better place than the trash can or landfill. The publishers have also launched a companion site, Compost This, that's a bit more directive, but still very useful.