Filed under: Cars and Transportation

As predicted by many of our readers, the controversial 2008 Green Car of the Year is total dud. GM's attempt to wrap it's king-sized SUVs in green packaging and sell them as "fuel efficient" is apparently falling flat on its face with the car-buying public -- and it probably should. In a climate where gas is topping $4 a gallon, paying $53K for 5,500lb hybrid that boasts 22mpg highway seems a little absurd.

Although GM's hulking hybrid SUOs (Sport Utility Oxymorons) seem a little less than practical, it's not just hybrid sales that are flagging. Americans are driving much less and demanding much better fuel economy than they were just a year ago. The big 3 have all announced that they're slowing production on SUVs and full-sized pickups for next year. That explains at least part of why GM has only sold 1,100 of its projected 12,000 hybrid Tahoes and Yukons so far this year.

[via Treehugger]

 

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Filed under: Etc., Green Daily

Click on the image above to enlarge

Power from poop. It's an idea that others have thought of, and it quite possibly holds merit. Especially in developing countries where every source of power can prove vital, and extracting power from waste makes perfect sense. But could poop power our cars? Every once in a while, we read something which just needs to be reprinted as it was initially written. This is one of those times. See below:

"Our addiction to oil has gotten completely out of control, and ethanol and biodiesel require growing things to produce. Hydrogen is good, but we have to use lots of water and energy to produce it, so we should combine it with something else to use it more efficiently. Batteries are nice, but they're very heavy and expensive, and they're not as durable as many of us would like.

My proposal is this:
Think about how much raw sewage we waste when it burns so well. Why not power cars with feces? Use a fuel cell to produce water, which can be used to move fecal matter away from the vehicle's occupants and allow it to sit in a U-bend to keep odors out of the interior of the car. The feces are carried to a burn chamber and incinerated, and the heat produced is used to convert water to steam, which is then run through a turbine and used to generate electricity. The energy lost from the steam when travelling through the turbine cools it and returns it to a liquid state, allowing it to be run through the system again. These are the driving ideas behind the Turdbiodiesel!(R) Hydrogen Sh*t Hybrid†.

†Turdbiodiesel(R) Hydrogen Sh*t Hybrid is a registered trademark of DoubleNaught, Turbiodiesel!, and Entwerfer des Audis." Note: The seats feature large side bolsters for use in case of constipation.

For once in our lives... we are speechless.

[Source: VW Vortex Forums via CarDomain]

 

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Filed under: Gadgets and Tech, Health, Home, Alternative Energy

When it comes to environmental impact, you've probably heard about the fact that gas-powered lawnmowers are so much more harmful than gas-powered vehicles, right? We've featured a few explorations on the subject here before, so our mind is made up. But now what? Which electric mower is the greenest, and which one is just right for us?

According to Greener Choices, a subsidiary of Consumer Reports, the highest rating went to Black & Decker's corded ($230) and cordless ($400) models for their efficiency, reliability and ease-of-use. The corded versions of the Worx and Homelite mowers both around $200) also ranked high on the list, along with the battery-powered, cordless models from Craftsman, Homelite, Remington and Neuton, all ranging from around $300 to $450.

 

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Filed under: Gadgets and Tech, Climate Change

Have you ever really taken a moment to think about the environmental impact of Coke machines? You might not give it a second thought, but just imagine all of the electricity that goes into keeping a few dozens cans or bottles of soda cold. Some of these may be quite old, sitting outside in the elements, working their little AC units to the bone. Just imagine how hard your refrigerator would have to work if you put it outside in the summer.

Well fortunately, Coca-Cola realized a few years ago that they need to do something about the efficiency of their vending machines. Originally, they had 6,000 new CO2-cooled units placed world-wide as a test of sorts. These units emit 75% fewer greenhouse gases than their HFC counterparts. Now, since those original 6,000 units have proven successful, the company has purchased 100,000 additional machines to include in their array of over 10 millions units currently operating globally. In addition to these, Coca-Cola has also invested $40 million to research next generation refrigeration technologies. It's certainly good to see when large companies like this are taking steps in the right direction, as an example for us all.

 

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A team of UC-Riverside researchers have determined that the age of the last snowball earth, when ice extended from the poles all the way into the equator, was ended by a massive release of methane gas, which spurred global climate change between 4 and 8 degrees.

The researchers believe that clathrates, sheets of methane ice contained in the permafrost, were allowed to melt and degas all at once, creating a situation where a stable system was suddenly transformed with little warning: “Our findings document an abrupt and catastrophic means of global warming that abruptly led from a very cold, seemingly stable climate state to a very warm also stable climate state with no pause in between,” said Martin Kennedy, who led the team, and is a professor of research geology.

What’s Keeping This From Happening Now?

We’re not entirely sure. It’s probably good news that there is simply less sequestered methane on the planet now than there was 635 Million years ago. We’re doing well in some part simply because the clathrates no longer extend to the equator. The other answer, is that we don’t know that this won’t happen tomorrow. Certainly that’s a bit of a sensationalist reaction, but our current carbon-based warming is putting an immense pressure on the ice strata above the clathrates, and just may lead to their melting/degassing. As our prehistoric example shows, there are two speeds to this mechanism: on and off. In between, it acts with little or no warning, and cranks the heat up on the planet in an irrevocable manner–we could gain tens of degrees in the blink of an eye.

So What Happens Next?

According to Kenendy, we’re conducting sort of a grand experiment at the moment–seeing just how far the climate can be pushed without reverting to an entirely new state. This has happened several times before, and been preserved in the geologic record, he claims, which means that we can count on, after a certain point is reached, the planet basically stating that there’s been a point of no return crossed, and that it’s going to find a new comfort level.

More Reading:

Methane Release Could Cause Abrupt Climate Change (Science Daily)
Snowball Earth

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Filed under: Green challenge

This month I challenged myself and our readers to do away with plastic shopping bags. All in all I'd say that I did OK despite the rough start. I also did a post on what chic, reusable bags are on the market. Please let me know in the comments how you did on your end. Once again I subject myself to video to deliver my captivating message only to realize that I'm wearing the same shirt as last month. It must be my subconscious at work because it certainly was not intentional.

Join me for June's Green Challenge which will start in a couple of days. Thanks for playing!

 

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Filed under: Home, Local, Alternative Energy

As with most small endeavors, if they become too large, they then introduce their own set of new problems. This is apparently the case with solar power, according to a report by the Institute for Local Self-Reliance. In the hands of the individual, solar power is something you harvest and conserve, giving you more responsibility for your own reliability on the sun. But once you centralize solar power, it introduces the problems of distribution from that centralized location, which drives up the cost, and drives down the feeling of responsibility to conserve.

According to this report, there are actually federal tax incentives to promote centralized power plants which discriminate against the locally-owned, decentralized solar arrays. So John Farrell, the report's author, calls for Congress to change these incentives and give equal benefits to residential and commercial solar projects.

 

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Filed under: Biodiesel, Ethanol, South/Latin America

Up to three percent of the energy needs of Latin America and the Caribbean could be covered by biofuels in 2018. This is the main finding of a report published by the Organizacion Latinoamericana de Energia (Olade, Latin America Energy Organisation) that was presented during the 3rd Biofuel Latinamerican and Caribbean Summit held in the Dominican Republic. Latin America's main biofuel producer is Brazil (no surprise there), a country that produced 3.25 billion m³ of biofuels last year. Using the most recent figures available (from 2006), the study found that Colombia came in a distant second with 165,000 m³ and then Costa Rica, which produced just 25,000 m³. Paraguay, with 34,000 m³, came in fourth.

[Source: Agroinformacion]

 

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Filed under: Kids and Parenting

Here's a scary study. Only one-third of primary caregivers for young children under the age of six could correctly estimate the toxicity of common household poisons, according to a new study being presented at the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine's annual meeting.

The study involved screening primary caregivers of young children who had visited emergency rooms, and asking them to identify toxic items from a list of common household products.

The study identified a number of factors that increased the likelihood of knowledge about household poisons. These factors include higher education, responsibility for fewer children and an age greater than twenty-three. The authors believe that primary care physicians can use the results of this study to target at-risk populations for poison prevention education.

Here's information from the American Association of Poisoning Centers about "Poisonproofing your home."

(Via ENN)

 

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