Congratulations to Al Gore for being awarded the 2007 Nobel Peace Price for his work against global warming. He has been actively fighting for this cause for 10+ years and the award is well deserved. He plans on donating his $1.5 million prize to the Alliance for Climate Protection. There are a lot of discussions about him possibly running for the 2008 Presidential Election and “draft Gore” groups even took out a full page ad in the New York Times this week suggesting he run for President. Although I would love to see him run for President and win, I don’t think he is going to run. Fighting against global warning is something that he feels strongly about and it would make a bigger difference to him to do this instead of running the country. When given the question, he often replies that he is involved in a campaign of a different kind, “educating Americans and people around the world about the climate crisis and what we can do to solve it.” If he really did run for President, it might take away some of his credability as an environmentalist since he would be using his fame and popularity as an Academy Award and Nobel Peace Prize winner. Once his fellow Democrat Hillary Clinton becomes President, I think Gore will have a lot of support from the Cabinet in the fight against global warning and I think he would do more good concentrating on this fight.
In China, cars and fuel are expensive and bicycles are not as popular as they once were. I remember ten years ago when I was in Guangzhou, China, the streets were filled with bicycles and motorcycles. That scene is almost non existent now and many cities have even banned motorcycles. Electric bikes or E-bikes, are battery-powered silent bikes that emit zero emissions and are very energy efficient and can run 1.2 kWh/100 km or 1,362 mpg. They cost about $100-250 and costs only $1 to charge the bike for about 1800 km or 1118 miles. There were 19 million e-bikes produced last year and is suppose to increase by 30 percent this year. The simple design and costs involved with producing these bikes are very low so the 100-300 companies that produce these e-bikes are raking in a ton of profit. The problem with these e-bikes, however, is that the batteries used usually last about a year and last year, 400,000 tons of lead have been used. The e-bikes can also be dangerous due to the silence and speed of these bikes. Anyone can buy these e-bikes as they don’t require a license to drive and is probably the best way to get around.
E-bikes are available here in the States, but they are nowhere near as cheap as they are in China. They start at about $750 online but if they were cheaper, we may see more of them on the streets. For people who work and live in the city, this would be a good form of transportation as opposed to a scooter or motorcycle.
Here is a blog by Jonathan Xavier Weinert that has more details about the E-bike phenomenon in China.
There has been many demands for the government to do something about becoming more green and Silicon Valley is pushing hard as well in fighting for a new federal energy law and climate change law. A government policy on reducing gas emissions and putting more money into energy research needs to happen. Two organizations, TechNet and the Greentech Innovation Network, are hoping for a “cap and trade” system where the government sets limits on emissions so that companies will have to buy carbon offsets to meet the limit. Many startups are creating more efficient solar cells, windmills, electric cars, and other sources of alternative fuel to combat fossil fuels. It will be hard for alternative fuel to fight against gas and oil companies since they have so much money and power behind them and it will need some help from the government to promote alternative energy. Now is the best time to fight for the laws because even if the bills get passed, it will take a long time for them to be in effect and by then, hopefully there will be bigger advancements in the technology. Almost every car company has their own version of a Hybrid now and the population of people driving Hybrid cars will eventually catch on.
The above video is a flyover of Dongtan, a new eco-city that will start development next year on the island Chongming near Shanghai, China. When it is done by 2010, it will start with 8,000 inhabitants and is planned to have a population of 500,000 by 2040. It is one of four eco-cities that will be built in China by Arup, a global design and engineering company. The cities will be ecologically friendy with zero emissions and self sufficient in water and energy. The city of Dongtan will only allow electric or hydrogen cars and have underground plant factories, and power facilities that burn rice husks to generate electricity. Half of the city will be parks and farmland.
Nissan is promoting its new navigation systems as a tool to fight global warming by improving the safety of the cars and increasing gas mileage. Nissan’s goal is to reduce traffic accidents by its cars by 2030 and reduce carbon emissions by 70% by 2050. The Eco Driving Advice gives you information on the car’s performance such as how many miles a gallon you are getting and how you drive ie. acceleration or decelerate a lot. It will also avoid traffic and a new system is being tested to avoid collisions by using sensors that collect data of the current locations of cars. Obviously, most of this is a PR effort since similar tecnology as the Eco Driving Advice is already being used by different companies but it is still pretty useful to have.
In China, cars and fuel are expensive and bicycles are not as popular as they once were. I remember ten years ago when I was in Guangzhou, China, the streets were filled with bicycles and motorcycles. That scene is almost non existent now and many cities have even banned motorcycles. Electric bikes or E-bikes, are battery-powered silent bikes that emit zero emissions and are very energy efficient and can run 1.2 kWh/100 km or 1,362 mpg. They cost about $100-250 and costs only $1 to charge the bike for about 1800 km or 1118 miles. There were 19 million e-bikes produced last year and is suppose to increase by 30 percent this year. The simple design and costs involved with producing these bikes are very low so the 100-300 companies that produce these e-bikes are raking in a ton of profit. The problem with these e-bikes, however, is that the batteries used usually last about a year and last year, 400,000 tons of lead have been used. The e-bikes can also be dangerous due to the silence and speed of these bikes. Anyone can buy these e-bikes as they don’t require a license to drive and is probably the best way to get around.
