Eco-Prison

kym hopes that this will become a rule rather than an exception . . .
wouldn’t it be nice if our prisons in South Africa could miraculously be self sufficient AND actulaly rehabilitate offenders.

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Here’s an island prison that’s about as distant in principle from Alcatraz as is it in location. Bastoey Island, about 45 miles south of Oslo, hosts some of Norway’s worst offenders in what is effectively an eco-village working holiday camp.

Instead of the traditional barred cells, prisoners, including murderers, rapists, drug dealers and thieves, live in separate, unlocked houses on the island. Although only one and a half miles from the mainland, prisoners are reluctant to escape, lest they get returned to the typical maximum security unit and lose the privilege of serving their time where they’re learning valuable skills, as well as gaining respect for themselves, each other, and the environment.

The island prison uses solar panels, is almost self-sufficient with food from its own organic garden, and operates a strict recycling system. This is an interesting experiment in eco-therapy — where reconnecting offenders with nature may well also help develop a noble sense of purpose, that in turn helps them reconnect with society.

[ Source: celsias ]

Patrick Moore was in South Africa recently on a whirl wind tour touting nuclear as the only solution to our power shortages . . .

I attended one of his presentations and found his use of statistics very one sided and narrow (climate change is not only about carbon output) and I would have thought as an ecologist he would understand the interconnectedness of ‘things’. What I disliked the most about his presentations was his continuous need to slander the greenies to make himself seem so right. If he was so keen to move from the “politics of confrontation” to the “politics of consensus” and if he wanted to be “fighting for something” rather than against something, then perhaps he needs to consider remaining consistent and leave Greenpeace and the anti-nuclear pundits and the greenies alone and rather work on what he is fighting for.

The press release from Earthlife Africa below says much more about the character of Dr Patrick Moore, including the questioning of hie co-founder status of Greenpeace which he shouts out about all over the world. If he has such issues with Greenpeace, then why proclaim so loudly that you were once a part of it?

I believe it is time Dr Moore moved on and honestly faced up to who he is now:- a pro nuclear lobbyist, with little doubt, paid handsomely by the Nuclear Industry. Lets not be deceived by loud claims of environmental friendliness, the great-green-gravy-train it seems has started rolling.

Travelling into the Future

The Energy Commissioner of the European Union Andris Piebalgs says Global oil prices may reach $200 per barrel in three years.
“When I arrived at the European Commission in 2004, a barrel of oil cost $52. It has doubled in three years. We can’t rule out that in 2011 it will be at $200,” Piebalgs told business daily El Economista. (Source: Press TV)

With oil prices soaring to heights previously regarded as a joke, a few “new” technologies are moving into the spotlight, offering alternatives to the traditional (old-fashioned?), fuel-guzzling (planet-wrecking) internal combustion engine.

The Air Car

Imagine a car that needs only air and emits only pure air out if its tailpipe! No longer are air cars in the world of our imaginations - the MDI Air Car is in production. Built with the high performance Compressed Air Technology (C.A.T.) developed by Formula One race car engineer Guy Negre, the Air Car is the major first step towards his ultimate vision: enabling clean driving at any speed and for any distance, at a cost that makes it a reality for everyone.

By Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) standards, the Air Car is classified as a “zero pollution car”, as there are no emissions from the tailpipe. Designed to make a major difference in urban areas the Air Car runs exclusively on compressed air at lower speeds, emitting only air = zero pollution.

At speeds above 60km/h the revolutionary dual-energy compressed air engine is expected to achieve a fuel economy of a remarkable 106 miles per gallon (about). Using small amounts of fuel (gasoline, propane, ethanol or biofuels) to heat air inside a heating chamber as it enters the engine; the process produces emissions of only 0.158lbs of CO2 per mile. That is up to 4 times less than the average vehicle and 2 times less than the cleanest vehicle available today.

The Air Car can be refilled with Air at home by plugging it into a normal power outlet or in a few minutes at a compressed air station. The compressed Air tank will also automatically refill when driving at higher speeds in the future.

The miniCAT’s model specifications speak for themselves:

The Tesla Roadster

Think that electric cars are sluggish, slow & dull?
Think again!

Tesla Motors has produced a sexy 2-seater, open-top roadster with a top speed of 125 mph (200km/h). But it is the 0 to 60 mph (96.5km/h) in 4.0 seconds acceleration that is making car enthusiasts excited. The Tesla Roadster is quick, it’s quiet, it is certainly sexy and it requires NO PETROL! Plug it into its at-home charging unit, and you’ll be fully charged in about 3.5 hours. This is considered a “worst case” for someone starting with a completely dead battery. Even after a 100-mile trip, you can be completely charged in less than two hours. You will get 220 miles (354 km) per charge, and should you need to charge on the road, packed away in the trunk is an optional mobile-charging kit that lets you charge from most standard electrical outlets while away from home.

Answers to your questions are readily available on Tesla Motors’ website - from interior and exterior colours to technical specifications.

Chairman & financier recently posted on his blog:

. . . our long term plan is to build a wide range of models, including affordably priced family cars. This is because the overarching purpose of Tesla Motors (and the reason I am funding the company) is to help expedite the move from a mine-and-burn hydrocarbon economy towards a solar electric economy, which I believe to be the primary, but not exclusive, sustainable solution.

Almost any new technology initially has high unit cost before it can be optimized and this is no less true for electric cars. The strategy of Tesla is to enter at the high end of the market, where customers are prepared to pay a premium, and then drive down market as fast as possible to higher unit volume and lower prices with each successive model.

Without giving away too much, I can say that the second model will be a sporty four door family car at roughly half the $89k price (the 2009 base models are on the market for $98,000 [http://www.teslamotors.com/buy/buyPage1.php]) point of the Tesla Roadster and the third model will be even more affordable. In keeping with a fast growing technology company, all free cash flow is plowed back into R&D to drive down the costs and bring the follow on products to market as fast as possible. ”

Although the Tesla Roadster is still a niche car - with availability only in the United States, limited range and the substantial price tag - it has shown that sports car enthusiasts can see a light beyond the internal combustion engine.

BMW Hydrogen 7

Brad Pitt arrived at the premiere to Oceans 13 in a BMW Hydrogen 7 (AutoBlog Green). Whether you believe that Hydrogen is a serious contender for alternative clean & efficient fuels or not, the fact that BMW sees fit to produce the Hydrogen 7 (100 of them have been put to the test as loan cars to leading figures) is a leap forward in the automotive industry’s attitude towards oil.

Visit the BMW site to view the details of their Hydrogen 7.

Concept Cars

The automotive industry has certainly been busy with alternative energy concept cars. The list of companies and their concept cars is growing and we hope to see more in production soon!

The BMW H2R is a dual-fuel hydrogen-gasoline race car that has set 9 international land-speed records when run entirely on hydrogen - www.cool-cars.biz/bmw-h2r.html

The General Motors Chevy Volt Hydrogen plug-in hybrid electric vehicle is not only cool in design but is one of the most fuel efficient concept cars to be shown in recent years - www.cool-cars.biz/Chevy-Volt.html

The Ford Super Chief is a tri-fuel vehicle that can run on unleaded gasoline, E85 (ethanol) or compressed hydrogen - www.cool-cars.biz/ford-super-chief.html

GM created the hydrogen version of the Gulf War gas-guzzling 8 mpg Hummer to showcase the future for hydrogen technology - www.cool-cars.biz/gm-h2h-hummer.html

Future Thinking

The appalling state of our planet with its critical pollution levels and soaring costs of oil has lit one small light at the end of a very dark tunnel; the automotive industry has finally been persuaded to step up their research into alternative fuels. Yes, this persuasion might have been from indications of peak oil and financial impacts of climate change, but I think it is time to see the positive viewpoint and look expectantly towards a future of clean transportation.

Biofuels: A fake Climate Change Solution?

Reading the email below from Avaaz has re-awakened the niggling doubts that I have always had regarding Biofuels. In their place, where they are certainly not replacing food crops nor indigenous forest, they might have a place in the future of our planet, BUT can we control the rampant greed that is causing millions of hectares of indigenous forest to disappear to make way for biofuel crops. Can global controls even prevent the kind of destruction that human nature seems so capable of inflicting on the planet and its inhabitants (including other humans)? I am not sure if we can control it and if not then where does the solution lie? Surely in all our cleverness we can find a new solution? One where fuel is not something that needs to be created through destructive practices? (check out the Air Car from MDI on my Travelling to the Future post)

The letter from AVAAZ:

Dear friends,

Each day, 820 million people in the developing world do not have enough food to eat¹. Food prices around the world are shooting up, sparking food riots from Mexico² to Morocco³. And the World Food Program warned last week that rapidly rising costs are endangering emergency food supplies for the world’s worst-off⁴.

How are the wealthiest countries responding? They’re burning food.

Specifically, they’re using more and more biofuels–alcohol made from plant products, used in place of petrol to fuel cars. Biofuels are billed as a way to slow down climate change. But in reality, because so much land is being cleared to grow them, most biofuels today are causing more global warming emissions than they prevent⁵, even as they push the price of corn, wheat, and other foods out of reach for millions of people⁶.

Not all biofuels are bad–but without tough global standards, the biofuels boom will further undermine food security and worsen global warming. Click here to use our simple tool to send a message to your head of state before this weekend’s global summit on climate change in Chiba, Japan, and help build a global call for biofuels regulation:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/biofuel_standards_now/9.php?cl=60834171

Sometimes the trade-off is stark: filling the tank of an SUV with ethanol requires enough corn to feed a person for a year⁷. But not all biofuels are bad; making ethanol from Brazilian sugar cane is vastly more efficient than US-grown corn, for example, and green technology for making fuel from waste is improving rapidly.

The problem is that the EU and the US have set targets for increasing the use of biofuels without sorting the good from the bad. As a result, rainforests are being cleared in Indonesia to grow palm oil for European biodiesel refineries, and global grain reserves are running dangerously low. Meanwhile, rich-country politicians can look “green” without asking their citizens to conserve energy, and agribusiness giants are cashing in. And if nothing changes, the situation will only get worse.

What’s needed are strong global standards that encourage better biofuels and shut down the trade in bad ones. Such standards are under development by a number of coalitions⁸, but they will only become mandatory if there’s a big enough public outcry. It’s time to move: this Friday through Saturday, the twenty countries with the biggest economies, responsible for more than 75% of the world’s carbon emissions⁹, will meet in Chiba, Japan to begin the G8’s climate change discussions. Before the summit, let’s raise a global cry for change on biofuels:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/biofuel_standards_now/9.php?cl=60834171

A call for change before this week’s summit won’t end the food crisis, or stop global warming. But it’s a critical first step. By confronting false solutions and demanding real ones, we can show our leaders that we want to do the right thing, not the easy thing.

As Kate, an Avaaz member in Colorado, wrote about biofuels, “Turning food into oil when people are already starving? My car isn’t more important than someone’s hungry child.”

It’s time to put the life of our fellow people, and our planet, above the politics and profits that too often drive international decision-making. This will be a long fight. But it’s one that we join eagerly–because the stakes are too high to do anything else.

With hope,

Ben, Ricken, Iain, Galit, Paul, Graziela, Pascal, Esra’a, Milena — the Avaaz.org team

SOURCES:[1] World Food Programme. “Hunger Facts.” Accessed 10 March 2008. http://www.wfp.org/aboutwfp/facts/hunger_facts.asp

[2] The Sunday Herald (Scotland). “2008: The year of global food crisis.” 9 March 2008. http://www.sundayherald.com/news/heraldnews/display.var.2104849.0.2008_the_year_of_global_food_crisis.php

[3] The Australian: “Biofuels threaten ‘billions of lives’” 28 February, 2008. http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23336840-11949,00.html

[4] AFP: “WFP chief warns EU about biofuels.” 7 March 2008. http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5hpCFf3spGcDQUuILK5JFV-6NL1Dg

[5] New York Times: “Biofuels Deemed a Greenhouse Threat.” 8 February 2008. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/08/science/earth/08wbiofuels.html

[6] The Times: “Rush for biofuels threatens starvation on a global scale.” 7 March 2008. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article3500954.ece … also see BBC: “In graphics: World warned on food price spiral.” 10 March 2008. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/7284196.stm

[7] The Economist: “The end of cheap food.” 6 December 2007. http://www.economist.com/opinion/displaystory.cfm?story_id=10252015

[8] See http://www.globalbioenergy.org, http://cgse.epfl.ch/page70341.html, and http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article3489640.ece.

[9] Government of Japan. “Percentage of global carbon dioxide emissions (FY 2003) contributed by G20 nations.” http://www.env.go.jp/earth/g8/en/g20/index_popup.html