The Lightning GT is a new 100% electric car, now available for preorder in the UK for delivery in 2009. They’re working on bringing it to the US market. It really is a sexy-looking car with all the usual bells and whistles and some special, noteworthy features:
Can be charged by simply plugging the car’s charging lead into your home’s electric power, as well as a mobile charging system. It can be charged in approximately 10 minutes for up to 200 miles of driving.
0-60mph in 5 seconds for the standard version and less than 4 seconds for the sport version.
10 x cheaper to run, using domestic electric power for charging as compared to the equivalent conventional gasoline engine.
Zero CO2 emissions, compared with 106 g/km of CO2 emissions for the Toyota Prius Hybrid.
State of the art NanoSafe™ battery system uses more thermally stable nano titanate materials instead of graphite and contain no toxic or heavy metals. The battery lasts for 15 years.
The NanoSafe™ batteries are designed for temperatures between 75°C and minus 30°C, whereas standard Lithium-Ion batteries need to be kept cool when used or heated to perform in sub zero temperatures.
Enhanced occupant safety, with its composite monocoque structure, and aluminium honeycomb crushable impact cells in the bodywork; the same technology that’s used in Formula 1.
Advanced motor technology integrated right within the wheel assembly, eliminating the mechanical complexity and power losses of gearboxes, differential, axle and drive shafts.
The price? Apparently it’s £180,000 pounds, or $220,000 and counting (with the dollar continuing its downward slide). Talk about deflating your enthusiasm!! Picture a noisy, squeaky, stressed-out balloon… that was me when I found out. Although exciting, the technology is still far from economically sustainable for the masses.
The Alberta Oil Sands Project is a contentious issue, and it isn’t going anywhere. On one hand, we know it is polluting the environment in ways we practically thought impossible (way to go, Canada!), and on another hand, it’s providing liquid black gold that we’ve become so excruciatingly dependent on. In light of this, what is stopping Canada from becoming a beacon to the world when it comes to our renewable energy resources? After all, with a land mass equivalent to Russia’s and less than 1/10th the population of the U.S., why haven’t we figured out a way of taking advantage of our vast, empty land for the betterment of the environment, instead of financing disastrous projects like the Alberta Oil Sands?
Let’s just think for a moment how Canada could set an example. We could erect wind turbines in the moderate-north, where no human wants to live, but energy sources abound. We could plaster our suburban and rural lands with field after field, or roof after roof, of solar panels. We could make it mandatory to install rain barrels outside our 2000 sq ft, homogeneous, suburban row housing. We could mandate the use of water efficient products in our residential and commercial communities, and demand to see green roofs on our buildings, instead of ugly concrete facades and HVAC devices.
The truth is, our government is still very much devoted to oil and fossil fuels, no matter what Mr. Harper dictates in his speeches to the world. We are dependent on oil, and sadly, will continue to be until we see every acre of our environment completely destroyed, or Mr. Suzuki develops an aneurism—whichever comes first. But there is hope!
Sustainability is a growing grassroots movement, and it will continue to grow in leaps and bounds as people like you and I become more educated about sustainable practices and our impact on the world. This is why we need to act now, from the ground up, and not wait for the government to tell us what’s “good” or “bad”, especially since so many government “policies” are aimed at helping corporate cronies make more money (check this out), and are not necessarily based on sound, logical principles (ethanol, anyone?).
This brings me to GreenPeace, and a rather tongue-in-cheek Tourism site they’ve created, aptly titled “Explore Alberta”. Watch and marvel at today’s bustling Albertan skyline, and relish in the thought of taking your next trip out to Alberta instead of sunny Punta Cana or Florida. Bon Voyage!
A report released by StatsCan has correlated how family income and education levels influence whether we choose tap or bottled water. To read the full article on CBC News, click here. In summary, it states the following
Higher-income households and those with children were most likely to drink bottled water.
The higher bottled water consumption among high-income households was driven by households where no one completed a university degree.
Households where at least one member had completed a university degree drank less bottled water than their counterparts who had no post-secondary education.
Surprising? I think so. As a university-graduate myself, I never would have thought to correlate education with bottled-water consumption, but it does provide me with some relief. I always wondered whether I was just a nagging “logicalist” or perhaps a perturbed environmentalist—and now, I can claim neither. I’m simply a university graduate. Yippee!
In all seriousness, bottled water just doesn’t seem to make sense. It costs over 1000 times more than its municipally-treated counterpart from the tap, is regulated and tested far less (read: in some cases, never), and is leaving an environmental disaster in its wake. With hundreds of tons of plastic basking in our landfills, and now reports about the plastic additives leaching into the bottled water, why are we still apprehensive to switch to the tap?
Leave it up to the marketing gurus and today’s age of overconsumption, and you have a match made in the French Alps. Consumers believe that bottled water is cleaner, tastes better, and even looks better. Why? Because it’s being sold in brightly lit, clean supermarkets, has a crisp, colourful label on it, AND they’re paying more for it—feeding into their appetite for exclusivity and luxury. The marketing hype convinces consumers that this stuff is better for you than good ol’ tap water. With social thinking dictating that “we get what we pay for”, it’s no wonder consumers believe that bottled water is “better” than the infinitely cheaper municipal tap water.
Check out this rather telling (and somewhat potty-mouthed) video comparing people’s perception of tap vs. bottled water. Then come back with a tall glass of water (I won’t tell you which), and give me your thoughts on the subject.
