Originally published in the ECOreport North American cities are primarily designed for automotive traffic. There has been more attention to bicycles, buses, and trains, but most people still look upon them as a poor person’s transportation. Traveling in Germany I found a different model: how public transit should work! “If … [continued]
Less than a week ago, Naohiro Masuda, the Tokyo Electric Power Company’s Chief Decommissioning Officer, spoke about development of the “ice wall” around the four ruined reactor units at the Fukushima I power station. In the company’s regular “prompt report,” the decommission head said that along with other measures, the $0.3 … [continued]
By Byron Meinerth, Chelsea Eakin, and John Hanrahan What is it like to rent an EV in Beijing? Over the Labor Day holiday, we decided to find out. For all the articles about Beijing’s air pollution problems and ambitious goals for electric vehicle adoption, we had trouble finding one that covered the … [continued]
Here’s a guest post on an upcoming conference in the UK that looks quite interesting. Have a look and see if you’d like to attend: The UK doesn’t currently have sufficient capacity to process all waste that could be utilised for energy — an estimated 30 million tonnes go unexploited … [continued]
Road salt, which keeps our roads and highways passable in winter while poisoning nearby environments, leaching into streams and lakes, and doing nasty things to the metal parts of our cars, may be on its way out. Engineers at Harvard University are developing new nanostructured materials that can prevent surfaces … [continued]
About 24 municipal buildings in Southern California are about to help ease the strain on the grid created by the peak need for air conditioning on hot California afternoons. Over the next few weeks, a consortium of municipal utilities in California will begin retrofitting government offices and commercial properties with … [continued]
Well, they have done it before, but were stopped by the Bush administration in 2001. The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has its own satellites and state-of-the-art sensors that it is going to start sharing with climate scientists again, in order to unlock some climate change and environmental mysteries. Approximately 60 … [continued]
In recent years a greater emphasis on MPG during car shopping has emerged. Between fluctuating gasoline prices, a broader selection of hybrid vehicles, and the promise of plug-ins and battery electric vehicles, and mandated increases in CAFE standards, fuel economy is becoming an important vehicle characteristic for many consumers. Makers … [continued]
