Inspirational and good news.
We’ve covered car sharing programs before on ThingsAreGood and I don’t think this will be the last time we mention them.
The BBC is running a good article on car sharing in the UK. Richard Ghail writes about how carpooling is a great way to meet people, save money and the environment all in one go.
He credits the congestion charge in London reinforces of environmental protection. What’s more, he points out that the economy benefits from less congestion on the road.
An economist, Mark Anielski, has looked at the benefits of keeping Canadian forests. The conclusion is that each year Canada’s forests do $93 billion in carbon regulation and tourism. Anielski says that we need to take this into consideration when we talk of chopping down trees and our overall approach to the boreal forest.
“Boreal forests regulate the climate by capturing and storing an estimated 67 billion tonnes of carbon in Canada alone – a job worth $1.8 billion, based on the price of carbon emissions from the global insurance industry.”
The company GreenKnickers is about making your under-clothing organic, sweat-free, and sexy. They spare no expense with making your knickers green – they even use environmentally friendly dyes.
I like how they “support local trade and minimise our knickermiles,” which must keep the transportation cost down. Since they are on the web they feel the need to have a blog dedicated to knickers.
“GreenKnickers are knickers with an ecological and ethical foundation, both in meaning and in material substance. They are designed using the principals of Natural sensuality, humour and communication.”
In the USA municipalities are doing exactly what the Bush administration despises – trying to use sustainable energy. San Francisco is one such city that is trying to be kind to the environment and they have a really cool idea of using tidal power under the Golden Gate Bridge.
They are investing $150,000 in a feasibility study to use tidal waves to power upwards of 40,000 homes! Officials note the obvious connection between current energy use and climate change and proclaim this project to be a needed step in the development of their city.
“Ultimately, city officials hope that turbines below the bridge will capture tidal energy from the powerful flow that circulates in and out of the mouth of the bay and generate as much as 38 megawatts of power, or enough to power 38,000 homes.
The tides at the Golden Gate offer one of the best locations on the western coast of North America to generate that power, according to a study released this summer by the Electric Power Research Institute and backed by the city’s public utilities agency.”
The Transatlantic21 is going to cross the ocean with no gas, instead it will use only solar power! After a successful voyage they will sell solar powered boats based on the successful design.
“The time is ripe for a breakthrough of solar techniques into the world of boat and ship navigation. Demonstrating the potential of solar power is the objective of Transatlantic21. In September 2006, “SUN21″, which has been constructed specifically for this purpose, will begin its journey from Basel to New York. It will be the first solar boat ever to cross the Atlantic: entirely dependent on sunlight, not consuming one drop of gasoline.”
Previously on ThingsAreGood we covered solar powered boats, hybrid boats, and a thing called the skysail.