An Introduction to Hybrid Cars

I'd been considering writing a piece on the different kinds of electric hybrid vehicles that will be hitting the market in the near future, however this article from MIT's Technology Review explains it better than I ever could plus it comes with a neat interactive flash applet.

We Update: new video

Al Gore's climate guardians, the ACP, have launched a new video ad in their WE campaign. It features current house speaker, Nancy Pelosi with former incumbent, Newt Gingrich.

Getting these two together on a sofa is something of a coup for the WE campaign though they manage to give a performance so cheesily wooden it would make any spindoctor cringe with embarassment.

Anyway, without further ado, here it is.

Now hop on over to wecansolveit.org and register your support.

Towards New Urban Futures

Amid all the controversy over the Beijing Olympics this summer, over China's Human Rights record, its actions in Tibet and the terrible air pollution in the host city, it is good to see London 2012 getting some recognition for responsible development.

The city that once had the dubious distinction of having the world's worst air pollution has been steadily cleaning up its act over the last few decades is now using the Olympics to regenerate what is probably its most depressed and most polluted area. The Lower Lea Valley, a vast area of dumpsite canals, graffiti and rubbish strewn, post industrial scrubland, is being transformed in to integrated urban units of low rise family housing, mixed employment and parkland with local renewable power generation and a variety of transport links; there will be new schools, retail outlets, both large and small.

All in all this is a holistic approach to urban regeneration, where people and environment are the twin chambers of the heart of these new communities. Regeneration projects like this can be Britain's new towns for the new millennium.

Where do your Cacti come from?

A plea for biodiversity.

I read that cactus poaching and smuggling is becoming big business in Mexico, largely into the US but it's likely that some turn up in Europe as well.

This kind of wholesale pillaging of a country's biodiversity is not new and happens on many levels from small scale poaching up to organised crime. And it happens to satiate the vanity of gardeners and collectors in the developed world who, because of the whims of horticultural fashion, have switched to the next 'must have' plant; a few years ago it was New Zealand's tree ferns, now it's cacti and only Allah knows what it will be in a few years time.

These practices have devastating impacts on the ecosystems in which they are perpetrated and can have equally disastrous impacts on the places to which they are transported; not only is there the ever growing and apparently endless list list of invasive alien species around the world but there is the problem of local hybridisation, Britain's bluebells are increasingly becoming genetically contaminated with introduced Spanish stock.

So please, unless you want to cripple an increasing number of ecosystems: check the provenance of any plants you buy especially if the species is new to the market, buy from reputable garden centers or growers and please, please, please don't buy plants on holiday abroad.

Can 'We' fix it?

Today I read that Al Gore's organisation, the Alliance for Climate Protection, has launched a new campaign called We Can Solve It or We for short.

In the unfortunate manner of anything international launched by politicians from the US of A, it's for America [sic] and the whole world, although they don't seem to be quite sure on the last bit. However, that's enough Yank bashing for today; this seems like a great idea to motivate a groundswell of public opinion to force leading politicians into action on climate change.

The Alliance is building partnerships with existing North American and International membership organisations with an interest in environmental protection, it is recruiting volunteers to evangelise , encouraging people to write to their local papers and elected representatives, to talk to community leaders, sign petititions, take part in local action, 'Ask lenders to consider climate impact when funding new coal plants' (that's a good one) and many other things, all as part of a coordinated three year campaign.

On their home turf they have started an advertising campaign on television, radio and print media, the rest of us will get to see their online advertising as well. they are aiming to get 10 million Americans, 1 in 30 of the whole population, working as volunteers. With that kind of support elected leaders will have to sit up, take notice and act.

So 'Go USA', whether we like it or not the rest of the world is waiting for your leadership, your technological capability and your industrial capacity in our struggle with climate change.