Posted by Dave (in Ireland)

Here’s an interview from Australian radio by Fran Kellly, with the naturalist and world-famous documentary maker David Attenborough, where he talks about his distaste for Japan, Iceland and Norway’s whale hunting.

Listen to the interview with David Attenborough »

Story on ABC Radio’s website »

Here’s a rather excellent article in UK newspaper The Times from Ben Macintyre “Writer at Large”:

“As a child, I sat on a whale every day. Many years before I was born a 50-ton sperm whale had washed up on the Scottish coast near to where I grew up, and one of my relatives had cleverly fashioned a stool out of one of its enormous vertebrae. To a child, that bone-stool was a thing of wonder: a fraction of a creature of impossible vastness. I would scan the sea, imagining the great beast from which my seat had come, dreaming that another whale might one day burst the surface. It never did.”
…

“The whaling debate was stranded and picked clean long ago. It is a rotten thing, riddled with bad science, exploited loopholes, petty politicking, bribery, blind nationalism and human greed, both gastronomic and economic. But perhaps more alarming still, the whaling debate bears disturbing parallels with the looming battle over climate change, another issue on which the clarity of science is being hopelessly clouded by politics and narrow self-interest. The world has had 60 years to protect the whale for all time; there is nowhere near that long to find a way to rebalance a warming world.”

Whale hunting: a saga of cheating, bribery and greed »

Filed under: Etc., Green Culture

Those of us who love the car and the drive tend to overlook infrastructure items like roads, parking spaces, and places to refuel. We assume they will be there. Well, some developers in Chicago have the wisdom to build a “Green Mall,” ideal for Greenies like ABG readers.

How does this sound?

• Preferred parking for smaller and hybrid cars. (SUVs to the rear, please!)
• Electric rechargers for those of us in our Teslas and other EVs
• Bicycles racks for our human and electric-assisted 2 wheelers
• A green roof to grow the salads we eat when we take a break from shopping
• Stores with products for our higher efficiency vehicles – meaning more auto parts for the electric side of our vehicles.
• Unmentioned but also needed, a refueling station with E85, biodiesel and natural gas.

Such features will tend to accelerate the end date of the most inefficient vehicles. It will be so uncool to have to walk past hundreds of cool cars/bikes/EVs/PHEVs when you drive your daddy’s Hummer H2 or H3 to the mall.

My only concern: this mall is in Chicago, the so called ” Windy City .” Our green vehicles better be up to the challenges: good cold weather starting, good handling in wind conditions, all wheel drive.

[Source: Newsweek]

 

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

What the Megaptera novaeangliae is going on?

“A uniformed Secret Service officer, back to camera, talks with Greenpeace activists, two dressed as humpback whales, at at the northwest gate of the White House”

These humpbacks obviously are’t too happy at the prospect of getting hunted by the Japanese whaling fleet later this year – and have dragged themselves out of the sea and all the way to Washington DC to have a word with Mr Bush!

See the photo from AP Photo/Charles Dharapak: Whales at the white house »

Posted by Page (in Amsterdam)

It’s something that’s almost too awful to contemplate: the disappearance of all of the great whales, species by species. What’s truly terrible – and what everyone must realize – is that an ocean devoid of whale songs means an ocean with massive ecological gaps.

Continue reading A deadly silence…

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

(more)

(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.