ELECTRIC VEHICLES: Nissan to unleash electric vehicle onto the mass market

Posted on August 3, 2009 by Buck

Nissan’s electric vehicle is called the Nissan Leaf, and it will travel up to 100 miles on a single charge. According to Nissan’s website, “The 100-mile range is in standard driving conditions – some highway, some city.” Most certainly for some consumers, a con to electric vehicles is the range (though I believe most folks can commute within 100 miles). To remedy this problem, Nissan says it’s currently working to inspire government and communities to provide the infrastructure necessary to recharge electric vehicles.

Consequently, I wonder if these electric vehicles are versatile enough to have a solar system integrated into the vehicle to further increase the vehicle’s range. I submitted the following question to an expert at Nissan’s website: “Is it possible to integrate some type of solar system to keep energy flowing into the battery?” Someone else had already presented a similar question, and the response was this: “There are a lot of decisions yet to make. At this point, we can’t say if solar might be a future possibility.” This isn’t exactly the technical response I’m hoping to get.

Currently, various private companies can convert the Prius into a PHEV. One company—Solar Electrical Vehicles—installs an additional solar roof that constantly recharges the battery, therefore, extending the PHEV’s range. Solar Electrical Vehicles “was created to develop a true solar charging system for Hybrid Electric Vehicles that provides increased electric driving range and improved fuel economy.”

Although raw materials are certainly needed to construct the vehicle, Nissan is marketing the electric car as a zero emissions vehicle, since it doesn’t necessarily require a fossil fuel source to produce power. In fact, in response to this question—”[S]houldn’t i worry about the power plant used to generate the electricity too”—a Nissan expert notes, “Even in its dirtiest form, the grid is 60% cleaner than gas. And it will get cleaner over time, unlike gas.” Furthermore, unlike a gasoline or diesel engine, electric cars have no messy moving parts. More on this from the Irish Independent:

Electric engines have no moving parts so they don’t need a clutch-operated gearbox. The effect of this is to make you feel utterly calm as the car smoothly moves from 0 to 50kmph in seven seconds. Revving inspires aggression — the linear acceleration on an electric car doesn’t. It’s a world without road rage.

There are other new habits to learn: when I’m not pressing the accelerator, the car naturally slows down (the resistance also helps recharge the car whenever you’re not accelerating) so I don’t really need the brake apart from emergencies. And then there is the aforementioned silent engine.

Some video of the Nissan Leaf

Some images of the Nissan Leaf

Images found here, here, here, here, and here.

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GLOBAL WARMING: Pat Buchanan believes global warming is a hoax

Posted on August 3, 2009 by Buck

Pat Buchanan, recently taken to the woodshed by Rachel Maddow over affirmative action, believes that global warming is a hoax. Furthermore, Buchanan believes the movement to remedy global warming, climate change, or environmental degradation is motivated by power.

Buchanan is correct. I don’t want Republicans in charge of implementing policies to protect the environment. Especially since environmental degradation, or how we impact the environment and use the environment, defines our future.

The problem with the Republican Party, like their embracement of the minimalist approach to solving any economic, environmental, social, and political problem—via market power and by lowering taxes—is their failure to grasp the complexity of some issues and a failure to apply appropriate remedies to complex problems.

To me, Republican policies on energy and the environment represent commodifying nature and burning through fossil fuels in order to maximize profits, having blind faith in the market to remedy any problem, and since Republicans are suspicious and paranoid of science and the environmental movement, they attack and penalize it. The Bush II Administration symbolized this type of policy towards science and the environmental movement. As a result, a power transfer was necessary to remedy eight years of abuse towards the environment.

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SUSTAINABILITY: To make beer, Tasmanian brewery grows all ingredients on site and recycles waste

Posted on August 2, 2009 by Buck

The waste grain and hops, from making the environmentally friendly beer, are used as cattle feed, and the couple that run the operation—Ashley and Jane Huntington—have plans to market beer-fed beef. Beer-fed beef might sound odd, but the Japanese feed the “black Tajima-ushi breed of Wagyu cattle,” used to produce the famous Kobe beef, “a beer a day.” You can watch a video of the operation here or visit the couple’s website—The Two Metre Tall Company. From ABC Online:

It is thought to be the only beer in the nation made completely from ingredients grown on-site.

“We grow grain, barley and wheat. We’ve started to grow hops many heritage variety of crops and we get the water from either the sky or the Derwent River,” Mr Huntington said.

They have turned to century-old techniques, using an open fermenting process to keep the brew preservative-free.

“What we are I suppose is the first phase of the wheel turning back hopefully to a more sustainable food production model.”

He says recycling of ingredients on the farm makes their golden ale emission-free.

“Waste from spent grain goes back into the paddock, and all of the solid waste grain and hop residues are fed back to the beef cattle.”

“The only thing we emit from the farm is the occasional bag of rubbish,” he said.

Jane Huntington says the choice of feed is popular with their herd of beef cattle.

“The moment that tractor starts up, they come running,” she said.

The system has attracted the attention of Sydney’s Institute of Sustainablility which wants to develop the idea for the global market.

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NEW SPECIES of bird described from Laos

Posted on August 2, 2009 by Buck

A new species of bulbul—a type of songbird from Africa and Asia—has been discovered in a remote Laotian forest. As Andrew Revkin notes, “Despite the ever-spreading imprint of humanity on this small planet, scientists keep discovering new species, even among relatively conspicuous classes of vertebrates like mammals and birds.”

Compared to discoveries of invertebrates or smaller vertebrates such as amphibians and reptiles, discoveries of new bird and mammal species are relatively uncommon. The rule of thumb seems to be; new discoveries of large animals are very rare. Likewise, remote and unexplored areas yield more new species.

However, this isn’t always the case. A new species of salamander was recently discovered in northern Georgia, and a new species of ghost slug was described from a Cardiff garden (note these are new discoveries of small animals, so it’s doubtful that new species of large mammals remain undiscovered in the United States).

The largest new animals discovered include various species of primates, muntjac, and a new species of bovine that represents a new genus as well. From CBC.ca:

The bare-faced bulbul is a thrush-sized, olive green bird with a light-coloured breast and a bald, pink face. It lives in the trees of a sparse forest among limestone mountains called karsts in Laos.

It is described in the 2009 issue of Forktail, the journal of the U.K.-based Oriental Bird Club, by the scientists who discovered it, Will Duckworth and Rob Timmins of the New York-based Wildlife Conservation Society and the Iain Woxvold of the University of Melbourne.

Bulbuls are a family of about 130 species of songbirds found in Asia, and the bare-faced bulbul is the first new one in more than a century, the society reported.

. . .

However, in the recent expedition, similar birds were seen in two limestone karst areas quite far from one another, Clyne said, adding that it’s not clear how common the birds are.

The research observed pairs of birds eating berries and flitting among the trees. They took photographs, recorded the birds’ calls, and captured some and took blood samples, they reported. A couple of specimens were brought back to the Natural History Museum in Tring, U.K., and the Australian National Wildlife Collection in Canberra, Australia, but Clyne did not know if they are on display.

Over the past decade, Timmins had also found a new species of rodent and a striped rabbit in the same area, the release said.

Images credited to Iain Woxvold/University of Melbourne

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The Conservation Report

Tracking news regarding conservation, the environment, energy, politics, and technology

Monthly Archives: August 2009

ELECTRIC VEHICLES: Nissan to unleash electric vehicle onto the mass market

GLOBAL WARMING: Pat Buchanan believes global warming is a hoax

SUSTAINABILITY: To make beer, Tasmanian brewery grows all ingredients on site and recycles waste

NEW SPECIES of bird described from Laos

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