The Global Warming Statistics

WorldChanging TeamEditor’s Note: A couple weeks ago we posted a piece by Alex Aylett reporting on Portugal’s impressive percentage of renewable electricity supply. Below, we revisit…

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Ethan ZuckermanHeather Blanchard, Noel Dickover and Andrew Turner from Crisis Commons visited the Berkman Center Tuesday to discuss the rapidly growing technology and crisis response space….

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WorldChanging TeamLooking back one, two and five years ago today on Worldchanging: 2009 Solar Panels To Boost Property Prices Joe Romm argues that “as peak oil…

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Our planet’s resources are finite; through overpopulation and exploitation, our species has done an excellent job of burning through them at a devastating rate. Clean water is increasingly scarce, our atmosphere is quickly degrading, and our oceans are turning into acid. Many scientists now believe that our species, as well as thousands of others, may be teetering on the precipice of another global mass extinction. Is the collapse of life as we know it now inevitable?

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I have survived Southern California’s horrendous traffic jams, though just barely. How anybody could stand to sit in traffic for hours on end, day in and day out, is beyond me. People do it though, and it seems to have bred a special kind of patience in the residents of Southern California. California also is a bastion of green living, and there are many advantages to owning a hybrid car in the state, like use of their HOV lanes.

While California recently announced that the Nissan LEAF would have access to HOV lanes immediately, the Chevy Volt was shunned. That has changed though, as Governor Schwarzenegger signed a bill allowing the Volt to use HOV lanes… starting in mid-2012.

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The Peel P50 was built on the Isle of Man in the 1960’s and powered by a 49cc gas engine that pushed the car to a 40 mph top speed and delivered more than 80 mpg. It was the smallest production automobile ever built, and—despite only 70 examples being produced —has become wildly popular in microcar circles, especially since appearing in a 2007 segment of the BBC’s hit show TopGear.

This new-found popularity and BBC visibility has breathed new life into the Peel concept, and new investment dollars mean that Peel is back in business!

More, including the hilarious TopGear sketch, after the jump.

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When it was introduced several years ago, Mercedes’ ultra-luxury Maybach line was originally intended to compete with offerings from BMW’s Rolls-Royce and Volkswagen’s Bentley. To put it mildly: Maybach flopped, selling only a fraction of the cars Rolls and Bentley did year after year. Maybach was such a spectacular failure that many industry analysts predicted Mercedes would discontinue the brand altogether.

They were wrong, and Mercedes has confirmed that green is the new fast, committing to a series of new Maybachs that tick all the right green boxes.

Read more about the whys and hows of Mercedes’ greenwashing of Maybach, after the jump.

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It is all about fuel economy right now, and the automakers are pulling out all the stops to ensure they might weather the stiffening CAFE standards in the coming years. Electric cars, hybrids, plug-in hybrids, diesels… all are about to become a lot more commonplace. Yet, still, there remains a seat at the table for fuel-efficient combustion engines, and there is plenty of room for improvement in the old standby.

Forgoing much of the hybrid craze, Mazda is focusing on clean petrol and diesel engines. And their work has not gone unrewarded. Comments from spokesmen suggest that the compact Mazda3 with a SKY-G engine got around 40 mpg on the highway. Not too shabby!

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Norway has continued to live up to its clean energy reputation by publishing its first annual report on the Clean Energy for Development Initiative.  This details nearly $130m worth of funds spent by the Norwegian Government on clean energy projects across the developing world in 2008-9, double the amount budgeted by USAID for a variety of issues including clean energy aid.

Key to the initiative’s approach has been the electrification of small villages in remote areas and over 44% of the money has been spent on building transmission and distribution infrastructure.  The largest type of generation deployed has been hydroelectric, with 15% of expenditure going on these projects, some of which have been large scale but many of which have been small and localised.

Other forms of generation considered include wind, geothermal and biomass, each depending upon the particular needs of the country and neighbourhood within which the initiative is operating.  Rather pointedly, the report states that it spent 0% of its money on power generation from non-renewable sources.

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One of the more pernicious and deceptive propositions on California’s ballot this November is Prop 23.  The proposition would suspend AB 32 (Global Warming Solutions Act), the landmark greenhouse emission reduction law that was passed by the legislature and signed by Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2006.  The Orwellian name given to it by oil-slick proponents is… Read More…

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Amanda ReedMichael Eliason and Aaron Yankauskas, of Brute Force Collaborative, have a great case-study up on a recently completed ‘Passivhaus’ housing project in the Lodenareal complex…

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Amanda ReedGrist has a new series of interviews up on people who are working to change America’s food system in inspiring ways. Yesterday they posted an…

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I’m going to go out on a limb and assume most of our dear readers are fans of fuel efficient cars. I too, like my gas-sipping 4-cylinder Mustang, mostly because it saves me a lot of money compared with the rest of my gas-guzzling fleet. Other people are just trying to lessen their carbon footprint, and common sense suggests that an electric car would have a smaller footprint than any fossil fuel-powered car, right?

Not according to one Swiss study. Compared to diesel-powered cars that get over 60 mpg, electric vehicles may have a larger environmental impact… especially if the electricity comes from non-renewable sources.

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In the first emissions trading to be introduced outside of Europe, the New Zealand government has just launched a cap and trade system to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions 10 and 20 percent below 1990 levels by 2020, UPI is reporting.

New Zealand imports most of its oil, but nearly half of the emissions are agricultural, due to the volume of exports from the isolated nation, and they have increased by 25 percent over the last 20 years.

Its nearest neighbor is Australia, but much of its trading is much further away, with the EU. New Zealand has long been a land of sheep farmers, and with an economy of only 4 some million people, has a very high carbon footprint in shipping its products to customers far overseas. When you factor in the carbon footprint of ocean transport, not just exporting, but also, importing, New Zealand is actually not as green as its reputation.

And now, with oil giants like Petrobras nosing around the island nation for an off-shore killing, the announcement is timely.

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WorldChanging TeamLooking back one, two and five years ago today on Worldchanging: 2009 The Cruel Cost of Clunkers Suzie Boss reports on the hidden social cost…

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