Green Options

The moment sustainable motoring has waited for has finally arrived: a full range of all-electric cars.
Renault has launched the world’s first range of purely electric cars at the IAA Frankfurt Motor Show 2009.  Designed to cater for everyone from a single traveller to local commerce, via 2.5 kids family cars, it’s a revolution in three important ways:

the range is designed from scratch as a complete set of electric cars — not gas-fueled cars with an electric motor retro-fitted to give the manufacturer green kudos;
the cars will be priced without an “electric premium,” allowing them to compete alongside gas-based engines on a like-for-like basis for the first time ever;
most importantly, they’re real. Presented as concept cars, the Kangoo ZE is already in an advanced prototype stage, and I was lucky enough to drive it at Frankfurt.

In the days when Ronnie was in the White House, penis envy ruled the superpowers’ nuclear arms race and David Hasslehoff was the west’s epitome of “cooool,” one car kept communist Europe running…

The Trabant. There was nothing this little runabout wouldn’t do to be cheap.

Its engine, a 600cc two stroke, would outperform your neighbour’s lawnmower… just. The fuel tank was *in* the engine; to refuel you opened the hood and splashed petrol around right next to a red-hot carburetor.

Even the bodywork was superior: the Trabant was made predominantly of plastic… it may not take an impact as well as metal, but at least is didn’t rust!

The International Maritime Organisation (IMO) has agreed new rules which ban the transportation and use of heavy grade oils by ships in the Antarctic Ocean.

The change was agreed during the 2009 meeting of the IMO’s Marine Environment Protection Committee and is scheduled to come into force in 2011.

In essence it will only allow ships to use only lighter grade oils which, if spilt, evaporate more easily, are easier to clean up and are far less damaging to wildlife.

An 84-year old grandpa got the shock of his life when a new plant took up residence in his back yard this spring.

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At first he was simply curious but after it had grown five feet in three months he and his wife decided it was time to act.

Better known as Jimson Weed or Thornapple, the plant was [...]

The Business and Biodiversity Offset Program has left me torn: is this a genuine attempt to preserve biodiversity, or just another exercise in corporate greenwashing?
The Business and Biodiversity Offset Program is a work in progress.  Its name includes that reviled word “offset”, a red flag for many deep greens.
However, unlike the dreaded carbon offset, this is not a market mechanism which allows industry to greenwash its way through normal operations.

Instead it’s a recognition that large industrial developments have a huge impact upon sensitive natural environments and can undermine the cultural lifestyle of local populations.

As Obama’s Climate Change Bill is debated, news comes from Europe about a great new way for consumers to participate in carbon emissions cap and trade schemes.


Usually consumers believe the only way cap and trade will affect them is through price differences based upon the amount of carbon emissions used in a product’s manufacture and delivery.

However Sandbag UK have come up with a brilliantly simple way of engaging consumers directly in the carbon market.

Community Supported Agriculture is a form of farming which encourages the active participation of a farm’s surrounding community in the production of its food.

The scheme works by signing up people to receive locally produced food and veg one year at a time. How much they pay for this food depends upon the amount of time they commit to working on the farm: the more time they commit, they cheaper the food.

This [...]

As the G20 leaders gather in Washington for what has been dubbed “Bretton Woods II”, here’s a brief list of the economic opportunities they need to discuss:

The World’s population is estimated at 6.7 billion:

of this, 15% live in slums and are permanently hungry
yet the USA, the EU, the UK, Russia, China, India and Brazil have all reported bumper harvests this year

The World’s GDP is estimated at $55.5tr per annum:

of this 85% is consumed by 20% of the population
while 45% of the population live on around $900 per annum

and 0.0001% of the population have a combined wealth of over $10tr

In the USA, in the ten years to 2006:

employment stayed at around 72%
while average earnings rose 45% from $37,000 to $54,000
and the average real income of the poorest 20% of households fell

In other words, the global economy is fixed in a spiral where prosperity is hoarded by those who already have and isn’t shared with those who already have not. Social mobility is non-existent.

Gazing into the future of a carbon market, two things seem certain: a fundamental change to the economy and sweeping land reforms.
There are two well known and highly charged sayings about land:
—–agriculture is the foundation of economic growth
—–all land use is inherently political
The fast approaching world of a carbon market could see how we use land becoming the most important issue in stopping climate change becoming a disaster for mankind.

An introduction to the Steady State Economy. Should this be the way globalisation goes? Read the article then add your thoughts below.

Previous posts in the “New Economic Architecture Required” series have looked at Wealth & Value, Money & Debt and Growth & Competition.

What these very brief analyses have shown is that we, the human race, are living beyond our means.

A Steady State Economy may be a way of bringing our consumption back into line, eliminating boom and bust in the process.