The Norwegians are on to something. Think Global is the company and Think City is their electric car that can go 110 miles without a recharge. Apart from meeting all US and European safety standards, the two-seater also packs very good performances and tops at 65mph.

Assembled in Southern California, Think City will be sold for less than $25K and the company “could be selling as many as 50,000 units in two or three years.”

Think Chief Executive Jan-Olaf Willums said test vehicles will be brought to the U.S. in coming months. He also said that a convertible Think City model, is in development. Can you imagine wind blowing through your hair at 65mph, without harming the environment?

Now if they could just come up with a better name…

Here’s a quick pictures gallery if you still need to be convinced !!! (thanks to mr.frego)

See also -

The “Microjoule” does 7,148 mpg - beat that!

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There’s a saying, “give a man a fish, feed him for a day. Teach him how to fish, feed him for life”. What do they say when monkeys learn how to fish? And, don’t they say things like when cows fly or pigs play the piano?

In Bangkok, the long-tailed macaque monkey can grab fruit from trees or bananaz from tourists, in India, the “cute little” monkeys are considered thieves and pests but in Indonesia, the silver-haired (retired and collecting a pension maybe?) macaque knows how to fish.

Big deal! I mean you get a pole, some string, a hook and some bait, right? Not these little primates. They just reach in and grab the little Nemos.

Though baboons, orangutans, and chimpanzees have been known to fish as well, researchers say this is a “rare and isolated” behavior. Now I wonder, can these monkeys teach us how to fish?

Six years ago scientists from China, Japan, Britain, and the United States all but determined that the white dolphin, also known as baiji, which makes it home in the Yangtze river, was extinct.

Rcently, a white dolphin cub (70-80cms long) with a long tooth filled snout was sighted in the Anhui province. The bad thing however is that it was found dead so I suppose if they aren’t extinct, Yangtze river pollution will surely kill them.

Some say this particular species of dolphin lived as long as 20 million years ago.

Baiji’s cousin, the bottlenose dolphin and that species is also on the endangered species list.

So much for the mythical unicorn, being extinct and all.

A unicorn-looking deer was born in captivity in Italy. Breeders are saying the deer has a genetic flaw because his twin has two horns. Um, isn’t it possible the twin has a genetic flaw and the Roe Deer is the real deal?

Some think this kind of anomaly among deer is what inspired the myth of the unicorn.

A researcher at the park where the deer was born 1 year ago said that

this shows that even in past times, there could have been animals with this anomaly. [...] It’s not like they dreamed it up.”

“Generally, the horn is on one side (of the head) rather than being at the center. This looks like a complex case.”

All that explaining is taking the fun out off, for me.

Now if the deer had wings, too, that would be really cool.

The dude who helped co-draft China’s national energy strategy, Song Yanqin, participated at Asia Clean Energy Forum 2008 and said that “food security comes first in China, more important than fuel”. He went on to explain that China has no plan to sacrifice food for fuel. Biofuels can find another source, dang it. China is hungry. We want to eat first, then think about energy sources and all that.

The debate is indeed far from over as to the effects of using maize, palm oil, sugarcane and jatropha to produce biofuels or what the effect would be on food prices.

One U.S. designer of high-tech alcohol plants said that “food versus fuel is 99-percent noise. Do your homework and get a noise filter. Time magazine is not your key reference document”. Does that mean that main stream media is not the authority on this topic? What about us bloggers?

In any event, China plans to have dinner, then think about it.

What’s your stance on the biofuel vs food price increase issue?

Image by stelzert

Saudi Arabia is calling for a summit between oil producing countries and consumer states, where the main topic going to be, soaring energy prices. The Saudis promised that along with OPEC they will “guarantee the availability of oil supplies now and in the future”.

Gosh, thanks fellows. You will keep gouging the rest of the world as long as they will pay for it, right? How kind of you.

The kingdom also promised there will be no “unwarranted and unnatural oil price hikes that could affect international economies, especially those of developing countries”. Exactly how not-affected are these developing countries when oil hits record price of $139 per barrel? Do we look stupid, that’s why you’re making fun of us?

One more thing the Saudi minister said “there is no justification for the current rise in prices”, but they still make a killing off the rest of it.

I know how to solve the high oil prices. Stop buying the stuff!!

The reason we get charged so much is because people will pay for it. It’s the market laws that says when the demand is high prices soar so better stop buying it and the price will probably go down. However, the best way would be to use alternative power sources. If OPEC realizes we do NOT need them, they’ll come around.

That’s what GreenPacks is all about - there are other ways.

Original image by anachronist

What if those more than 5 million heavy duty trucks rolling up and down just the U. S. highways, would be powered by an engine wit 30-percent better fuel mileage, that doesn’t have pistons and needs no lube?

Such a truck gets on average a 7 mpg and with oil, diesel and gas prices only going up, someone had to come up with a solution. Turbine Truck Engines may have good news for the big fellas, a new engine dubbed Detonation Cycle Gas Turbine (DCGT) that:

• will use 30-percent less fuel
• will reduce emissions by 30-percent
• will be able to use all sorts of fuels - biofuels, hydrocarbon fuels, H and even synthetic
• will have fewer moving parts, which will reduce maintenance costs
• will use no lube oil, filters or pump because it has no pistons or valves
• will be lightweight : only 2lbs / hp

All they need is investors.

Where’s Pickens when you need him because having this technology in all those French and Spanish trucks idling and on strike, would be great. Right?

The world’s speed and nuclear power do not belong in the same sentence, but sure enough China is doing its darnedest to build as many nuclear power plants as it can, using OLD technology. Their target is 4 new generators each year, through 2015.

However, the nuclear plants are going to be just a partial answer for its mounting pollution, energy security problems and the fast growing electricity use, because they will not be able to provide more than 5 percent of its power. Is coal still an option for them? Did they never hear of wind or solar power?

China’s nuclear power companies want to export that ability and technology overseas and the biggest problem would be a huge push to expand the country’s reliance on nuclear power domestically.

Nuclear power is an alternative if it is managed correctly, and when it does go wrong, it goes seriously wrong. But, who manages it correctly?

I am not pretending for a moment that Kenya is the kid and the U. S. or any other ‘developed’ nation is the adult. It’s the other way around. Kenyans have been here much longer than we ‘Westerners’.

However, the fact that the Kenyan government has a blue print for renewable energy - Kenya Energy Sector Environment Program (KEEP) - gives pause to wonder. It’s definitely the ‘under-developed‘ leading the ‘developed‘ no?

KEEP wants to -

1. phase out importing telephone poles
2. preserve the nation’s water catchment despite population pressure
3. remove existing barriers and constraints to adoption of efficiency and conservation technologies
4. begin switching from reliance on charcoal for fuel to promoting commercial tree growth
5. 85% of their planned new capacity to come from clean geothermal and hydro renewable sources

Go, Kenya, go!

Show the rest of the world how to do it.

Image by eir@si

The Donald as they like to call Donald Trump wants to create a $2 billion playground golf course in Aberdeen, Scotland, home of golf. He got environmentalists and one very stubborn farmer, to stand in his way.

Trump wants to bring his New York style development plans to an environmentally sensitive stretch of coastline, a legally protected site of scientific interest and wants to develop the world’s greatest golf course. His argument is that “people won’t play a course if it is environmentally harmful. They don’t like it, they don’t feel good about it and they won’t play it”. Do I really have to bet my money on that lie?

Just for the record, the local farmer who refused to sell his land, rejected on a $690,000 offer. Is he holding out for more?

It’s a tough call to choose between the land of scientific interest that is home to some of the country’s rarest wildlife, including skylarks, kittiwakes or badgers and the two golf courses, 900 timeshare apartments, 450-bed hotel and 500 luxury homes. Right?