Tag Archives: Environment

Tesla Motors Humming Along

Tesla makes electric cars that go fast, real fast. Auto Blog Green is wondering if we’ll soon see “gas stations” for electric cars in California.

The company won a grant to develop recharge stations to power the electric vehicles in an effort to encourage people switching from infernal-compustion engines to more environmentally friendly alternatives.

When CARB solicited proposals this year, they said that, “Electric fuel vehicles have the largest potential to reduce climate change emissions and petroleum dependency relative to any other alternative fuel vehicle under consideration.” The awards list shows more money being sent to biofuels ($12 million for ethanol and biodiesel) than EVs and PHEVs ($5 million), though.

Previously on Things Are Good.

Building a Green Home in the Land of Oil

Calgary is absolutely flush with oil and oil-related wealth, it is also the last place in Canada that you’d think you would find a green huose being built.

Well, the Ramsay House Project is a project that a family of Calgarians are undertaking to live in a sustainable way. It’s great to see that in a province that hates the Kyoto Accord that people are still caring for and about the environment. You can follow the Ramsay House Project at their site and they also include information on how to build green into your house (if you have one) too!

Green Cabs Start to Appear in NYC

When news first broke about all those yellow cabs going green in New York City I was pretty excited. Now they are being rolled out and all the yellow cabs in NYC will have to be green by 2012! They taken a good initiative and made it better.

“There’s an awful lot of taxicabs on the streets of New York City obviously, so it makes a real big difference,” said Bloomberg. “These cars just sit there in traffic sometimes, belching fumes; this does a lot less. It’s a lot better for all of us.”

There are currently eight vehicles on the city’s “approved” list when it comes to hybrid vehicles to be used as yellow cabs: the Ford Escape Hybrid; the Honda Accord Hybrid and Civic Hybrid; the Lexus RX400h; the Saturn Vue Green Line; and the Toyota Highlander Hybrid, Camry Hybrid and Prius. As more manufacturers roll out fuel efficient hybrids, the number of possible candidates is sure to increase. Vehicles like the Saturn Aura Green Line and rumored Ford Fusion hybrid are likely to join the list.

Carbon Tracking Software for Cities

Not only has Clinton and comrades found $5 billion to spend to help cities green themselves, they have created software that tracks carbon outputs for entire cities!

The new software and Web applications are part of broader set of programs being introduced by the foundation led by former President Bill Clinton, who is speaking at the C40 climate summit this week for the mayors of the world’s largest cities.

The software tools aim to create a standardized way for cities all around world to measure their greenhouse gas emissions. With a common standard, cities would be able track the effectiveness of carbon-reduction programs

A Guide to Climate Change for the Perplexed

earth.jpgNew Scientist has a great article for people who are at all confused, misinformed, ignorant, or othwerise boggled by all this talk about climate change. They clarify many things that people may not know much about. It’s worth a read if you don’t think you know enough about climate change, or if you just want a reminder what climate change means.

Our planet’s climate is anything but simple. All kinds of factors influence it, from massive events on the Sun to the growth of microscopic creatures in the oceans, and there are subtle interactions between many of these factors.

Yet despite all the complexities, a firm and ever-growing body of evidence points to a clear picture: the world is warming, this warming is due to human activity increasing levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, and if emissions continue unabated the warming will too, with increasingly serious consequences.