Filed under: Emerging Technologies, EV/Plug-in

We spoke with Ener1 Chairman Charles Gassenheimer back in December at the EVS23 expo and at the time he was quite bullish on his company's prospects for 2008. So far this year, there has been quite a bit of good news for the company. Ener1's li-ion battery subsidiary, EnerDel, put a lithium-ion pack in a Th!nk City EV and is a staunch proponent of making future hybrids much more affordable. GM-Volt's Lyle Dennis recently had a chance to get an update on EnerDel's current battery status from Gassenheimer and you can read all about it here. The condensed version is:

• The EnerDel Prius was tested at Argonne national lab and got 77.4 mpg.
• Some EnerDel battery packs are being tested in Canada.
• The available operating range of EnerDel's packs is 95.5 percent, much more than the range that other companies' batteries can offer.
• Ener1 is in talks with more companies to use their batteries.
• Gassenheimer doesn't see a lithium shortage any time soon. Perhaps we'll get it from seawater some day.
• Li-ion Th!nk City still on track to be "on the road by the end of this year."

Read the rest.
[Source: GM-Volt]

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Filed under: News, Climate Change

These are some crazy times we live in. First, we discover that the Polar Ice Caps are melting dramatically faster than we had first imagined, and now we learn that more than 16,000 species on the endangered list are in higher danger of becoming extinct much sooner than first predicted, as a result of the flawed system being used.

In a new study published in Nature, the University of Colorado's Brett Melbourne and UC Davis' Alan Hastings estimate that endangered species may become extinct as quickly as 100 times faster than originally expected. They blame earlier predictions on outdated models and the exclusion of many key factors such as the ratio of male to female in each species. Hopefully, this new awareness will get new research in gear before it's too late.

 

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Filed under: Solar, Transportation Alternatives

When imagining the future of carbon-free air travel it seems strange that so many of us overlook the obvious; super speedy solar-powered flying turtles. No, not like that famous flying turtle from Japanese cinema (Gamera doesn't sport solar panels, silly), but rather an airship with a rigid hull that derives power from the sun by day and burns biodiesel by night. Think this is just some flight of fancy? Maybe so, but Darrell Campbell, the man behind the concept, says the Turtle Airships company is building a prototype right now and may soon be flying in a sky near you. In fact, he says it will make an "around-the-world flight" sometime next year.

Mr. Campbell has an ambitious list of duties he believes his airship is well suited for. In addition to carrying travelers to and fro, he envisions a flying hospital version that travels to where its needed. It could also be used as a military troop carrier, and, of course, an effective means of combating the scourge of "pirates in the waters off of Somalia, Indonesia, and Nigeria." Sounds nifty to us. You can keep up with the advancement of the flying turtle by bookmarking their blog. Read the entire press release after the break.

[Source: Turtle Airships via Environmental Graffiti]

Continue reading 200 mph solar-powered flying turtle

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Filed under: Polit-eco, Activism

Oh woe to the Los Angeles River. Not even Cher or Joan Rivers wanted to be paved over as thoroughly as you have been. No prayer to the God of Rain can help you. Yes, indeed, to the right is a photo of L.A.'s river, leveed and walled by cement. This is what the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers once called flood protection: 21 miles of concrete and a severing of all river arteries.

The many freeways in Los Angeles actually follow and sometimes cover what's left of the river. The system of rivers flowing from the San Gabriel Mountains was broken up and channeled immediately to the ocean. Flooding is still a concern, largely because of the channeling that has been done to the region. That has prompted the Army Corps to consider more paving. Ephemeral streams still feed the river, and developers want the rights to pave over those regions. The Army Corps thus far is willing to consider their interests.

A river this dreary seems beyond hope. Who could love this river? Well, Friends of the Los Angeles River can and do. On the group's website a few wins are noted. They've managed to create a community park that protects some of the remaining habitat along the river and helped designated a State Park at Taylor Yards, another bit of riverfront saved.

 

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Filed under: Green Culture, MPG, Green Daily

High fuel efficiency is a hot topic today, but people have been tinkering with miserly vehicles for a long time. Take GreenPeace, which started working on the "SmILE-Project" in the mid '90s. GreenPeace thought that if it was going to have to be cars that we use for transportation, they may as well be "Small, Intelligent, Light und Efficient" (hence, SmILE). Unveiled in 1996, the tweaked first generation Renault Twingo got dramatically better fuel economy and, had Renault followed up and put these into production, would undoubtedly be a huge seller today.

The vehicle itself is labeled with the words "First Aid for the environment - same performance, half the fuel usage." That's not an exaggeration. Before the work, the Twingo used 6.7 liters per 100 km (35mpg U.S.) and afterwards just 3.3 (71mpg U.S.). Thanks to Slim for the tip!

[Source: Greenpeace (link is in German)]

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Filed under: Climate Change

I realize the world has moved onto forest fires but I'm still thinking about floods.

In the Midwest today it is again threatening rain, which has me thinking about terms. Levees tend to look like grass berms. They're actually made of clay and sand, an impermeable mixture that is built several feet above the normal crest of a river. The width of the levee usually depends on the force and width of the river amongst other things. Soil is piled on top of the clay and grass is planted, perhaps a flood wall is added. Typically the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers build the levees which they sometimes also manage. When engineers talk about a break in the levee it could mean that the clay and sand have eroded, leaving a gully, or it could mean that the water has breeched the berm.

The goal of a levee is to keep a river from spreading. But as Professor Chris Paola at St. Anthony Falls Laboratory pointed out, a river is a living thing. It moves, breathes and changes. Putting levees in place is akin to turning a river into a culvert. An extension of that metaphor is the absent Los Angeles River. So many agricultural and urban levees exist it logically follows that during heavy rain water will drain into a river that serves as a funnel. Eventually the pressure in that funnel will explode in someone's town.

So it's no wonder that when rain falls in a series of controlled channels and has no place to go it will break its levees. I think of the fairytale in which a sleeping dragon is tied in place with the sturdiest rope the villagers could find. As soon as the dragon awakens and tosses his head, all of the strings break.

 

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Filed under: Polit-eco

You recycle, you compost, you walk to work. But how green was your last rich country leader get-together?

It was probably not as green-themed as the upcoming G8 summit to take place in Northern Japan. Eight rich and pretty polluting countries are meeting in Toyako and Japanese organizers plan to be very eco-friendly hosts.

On the functional side of things, cops will be rolling around on Segways, toilets that use 31% less water have been designed specifically for the event, and a bunch of new hydrogen fuel cell cars from Honda will be taking delegates to and from meetings over the five days.

And if you're a world leader, you likely travelled to this G8 party by air. Well, now you can stop feeling guilty and off-set your emisssions at a booth in the international media centre. The service will calculate the emissions you produced by attending the summit, and then offer you a chance to donate money to an offsetting project involving, for example, reforestation.

With the richest countries getting together for a chat, and this being George Bush's last appearance at the annual G8 shin-dig, it's good to see some scheduled discussion on the environment as well. Alongside other important issues like African development and world economy stuff, the issue of climate change and sustainable energy will be a focus and is supposed to dominate the second day of meetings.

While this summit will likely be the greenest themed yet (even the summit's logo displays a gree leaf), it is also the most expensive, totalling a controversial half billion US dollars of Japanese taxpayer money. The media centre itself will cost about 50 million dollars US and will be all greened out with solar panels, a snow cooling system and exhibits showing off fuel cells and heat pumps. It will not, however, be the most sustainable building - there are plans to demolish the centre after the summit is over.

 

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Filed under: Ethanol, Hybrid, Ferrari, Lightweight

In the past year, Italian high performance icon Ferrari has increasingly showed signs of succumbing to the pressures of the modern world of transportation. At the Detroit Auto Show in January, the Ferrari displayed what was labeled as an E85-fueled F430 Spyder and last year showed a mock up of a lightweight concept dubbed MilleChile. Speaking to German newspaper Welt am Sonntag Ferrari president Luca Cordero di Montezemolo once again proclaimed the company's commitment to reducing carbon dioxide emissions and fuel consumption.

Montezemolo declared that a road-going hybrid Ferrari would be on the market by 2015 and the company intended to reduce CO₂ emissions by 40 percent by 2012. Bringing technology from race programs to the road is nothing new for Ferrari. This is a company that truly lives the motto "Racing improves the breed." From advanced variable intake systems to automated manual transmissions, Ferrari road cars feed the Formula One program with cash and feed off the advancements. The latest is the kinetic energy recovery system (KERS) being developed for the F1 cars. KERS is a regenerative braking system and it's not known is if Ferrari is planning to use a flywheel-based system or electrical energy storage. Either, way Montezemolo has committed to maintaining the character of Ferrari while making the cars cleaner at the same time.

[Source: Sydney Morning Herald]

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Filed under: Movies, TV and Books, Polit-eco

One of the essays found in the Nature issue of Lapham's Quarterly starts this way:

"I am far to the west, west even of the dust storm, and west of my night spent sleeping in the dunes near the café and the busy road just across the fence in Mexico. Now I am on the western edge of this huge empty, this void on the map that lacks a single resident and stretches east to west for more than one hundred miles. The jagged crest of the old rock mountain to my back picks at the sky as if the fabled vault of heaven were a scab irritating to the blazing earth," Charles Bowden from Inferno

The magazine is founded by the former editor of Harper's Magazine, Lewis Lapham. Only one volume into its run, this third quarter is about nature. The magazine's mission is to consider important issues of the day and use articles of grace and thought throughout time to consider those issues.

Instead of writing about Global Warming or conferences or the vegan cat fight between Pamela Anderson and Jessica Simpson, the magazine considers land when it was wilderness, new ground, paradises and hells, Walt Whitman, Annie Dillard, Al Gore, John Stienbeck, Theodore Roosevelt and Virgil are a few of the writers included. Instead of paraphrasing or long essays, here are abridged passage from pieces like "A Pilgrim at Tinker Creek" and "2006: Nashville."

If you're wondering what T. Rex's explorations have to do with today's struggle over energy and land and water Lapham asks that you think about how we define nature. What is natural, what is artificial? Where are we going? Do we know where we've been?

 

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Filed under: Gadgets and Tech, Shopping Guide

Crazy Japanese company Strapya World, home to Care Bears-themed cell phone cases and charms made to look like mini hamburgers, has come out with something that's actually not pink and plastic (go figure).

Strapya's new cell phone accessories are made from used bike tire tubes. The best part? The material is obviously heavy-duty and water-resistant, so no worries if you accidentally drop your phone in a puddle or onto the concrete.

The accessories include cell phone covers, straps, and "cell phone cleaners" (see photo). As far as I can tell, these tiny pouches contain a velcro-like strip inside, which you can use to dust off your phone. Um...right.

At any rate, props to Strapya for breaking out of its mold (which, until now, seemed to be cheap, wasteful plastic toys) and giving products from reused materials. And they're even kinda chic-looking.

 

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