SalvaEco

Filed under: MPG, Transportation Alternatives

Perhaps I am showing too much of my inner scooter-geek-dom with this post, but I am really excited that Italjet scooters are coming back to the American market. One reason is that these scooters are really just super-cool looking. That means that America’s style-conscious buyers might be more inclined to consider them as a viable means of transportation. I mean, there is a good reason that Vespa scooters have become an icon, and it’s because they are fashionable. Just like a Prius is an eco-cool vehicle to be seen in, A Vespa can make the same impression. Considering the gas savings, congestion savings and other possible environmental benefits, scooters are a very good option for those who are not traveling too far and who don’t often need to carry passengers.

Let me also say that I agree with some of our past comments, whose authors have pointed out that riding a two-wheeler in a sea of four-wheelers (cagers for you cyclists) can be dangerous. I ride a bike, and practice what I preach. Make sure you are protected and consider a safety course. DiCaprio might not make the best role model for you in this regard. But, he is saving gas!

[Source: The Scooter Scoop]

 

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

Exxon announced in February that they had given up funding climate sceptics (or skeptics, for you Americans) to great fanfare. But when our researchers looked into their tax records we discovered that Exxon was in fact lying. They’d abandoned a couple of high-profile institutes, but continued funding 14 organisations in the “Crisis? What crisis?” racket.

Since 1998, Exxon has spent more than 22 million US dollars trying to undermine the scientific consensus that Global Warming is real, that it’s related to human activity, and that their own product is one of the chief culprits.

This prompted one wag, Greenpeace pal Gillo, to write an impassioned appeal for a little pocket money, in “Dear Exxon, I am a climate sceptic:“

Dear Exxon, I *AM* a climate skeptic, I might not have the charm of the American Enterprise Institute and I am definitely more boring than the Heartland Institute, but you need someone who supports you in the bloggers community! Dear Exxon, we are buddies, I don’t need $2.1 million but isn’t it possible to put me in the list for your 2007 grants?

If bloggers had been around in 1938, I suspect the equivalent would have been a signup form for the Neville Chamberlain Hitler Appeasement Fan Club.

From Beaches to Pine Barrens, a Study Puts Values on New Jersey’s Natural Assets
Shining a Bright Light on Energy Efficiency
Utah to Grow Biodiesel Crops on the Freeway
Urbanites Encouraged to Keep Bees
Australia Says Regional Carbon Trade Years Away

(more)

(Posted by David Zaks in News and Views at 7:54 PM)

While many things about living a sustainable lifestyle have changed since the early days of environmentalism, it’s been true all along that the best way to buy green is to buy nothing. Even with the current upsurge in “eco-friendly” consumer goods, the lightest impact we can have as consumers is to consume less, buy less, and use less. The obvious argument against the whole idea, of course, is that to live a comfortable life, we all need things, and this whole “buy nothing” attitude is just guilt-making and impossible. Yet when it comes down to it, in many cases what we really want is the service those things provide, not the things themselves. If we could have the resulting conveniences that all our possessions afford us without owning them ourselves, would our lives be as comfortable and easy? Service designers say yes. Service designers create product service systems, which are a way to facilitate access to everyday conveniences through organized sharing, while maintaining (or even elevating) our quality of life. The classic example of this, which we reference frequently, is car-sharing. The concept has been around for decades, but recently, it was hugely inconvenient and inefficient. Technology has revolutionized the… (more)

(Posted by WorldChanging Team in Stuff at 2:29 PM)

Posted by Page (in Amsterdam)

Henry Ramage talks about why we need to save the whales, and that kids can help too. © IFAW. Click for more.

The young man in the photo to the left is Henry Ramage, who has been on a whirlwind tour of multiple US cities to tell people about the plight of the whales.

He’s traveling with his dad, who’s the Global Whale Program Manager for the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW). They’re flying in probably one of the coolest planes around, which is IFAW’s Whale Plane. As they go, they’re collecting children’s artwork about whales, and Henry’s giving some amazing speeches telling us why he cares about whales, why we should care about whales, and that it’s very important for children to get involved.

Their long and amazing journey will end in Anchorage, where Henry and his dad will present the children’s artwork to government officials at the IWC meeting. You can read their dispatches at their blog.

IFAW and Greenpeace are separate organizations, but we share the same conservation goals, including stopping whaling forever, and making sure marine mammals in general are protected from harm.

Continue reading Henry Ramage and His Amazing Blue Airplane…