Dubai introducing hybrid taxis

A ground-breaking decision to introduce hybrid vehicles into Dubai's 6000-strong taxi fleet was announced by the Dubai Government. The decision follows the directives of His Highness Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, that environmental issues should be given priority, as highlighted in the Dubai Strategic Plan 2015. Other major cities which have already introduced hybrid taxis include London, Chicago and New York.

John Coequyt, an energy policy specialist for Greenpeace, said the government rulings were "a very good way" of speeding up the move to hybrid technology. "It's absolutely a step forward. It's very impressive that Dubai is ahead of most US cities and a lot of the rest of the world in making the switch to these more fuel efficient cars," he said by telephone from Washington DC.

More than 75 per cent of the air pollution in Dubai is thought to be caused by vehicle emissions.

(2007-06-07 12:55:51 SGT) [Energy] Permalink

ABAT delivers first Li-Ion polymer batteries for Beijing garbage trucks

greencarcongress.com :

Advanced Battery Technologies has delivered the first 200 of 3,000 polymer lithium-ion battery cell packs to Beijing Guoqiang Global Technology Development Co. for use in electric garbage trucks specially designed for the 2008 Olympics Games.

Earlier this year, ABAT signed a mutually exclusive development agreement for lithium polymer batteries in China with Altair Nanotechnologies. This agreement covers the incorporation of Altair's battery electrode nano-materials into ABAT's existing polymer battery product lines and specifically focuses on development of high power, lithium polymer batteries for use in electric vehicles.

- Li-Ion electric garbage trucks, huh? That's new.

(2007-06-07 12:50:59 SGT) [Energy] Permalink Comments [1]

NASA finds vast regions of West Antarctica melted in recent past

terradaily.com :

A team of NASA and university scientists has found clear evidence that extensive areas of snow melted in west Antarctica in January 2005 in response to warm temperatures. This was the first widespread Antarctic melting ever detected with NASA's QuikScat satellite and the most significant melt observed using satellites during the past three decades. Combined, the affected regions encompassed an area as big as California.

The observed melting occurred in multiple distinct regions, including far inland, at high latitudes and at high elevations, where melt had been considered unlikely. Evidence of melting was found up to 900 kilometers (560 miles) inland from the open ocean, farther than 85 degrees south (about 500 kilometers, or 310 miles, from the South Pole) and higher than 2,000 meters (6,600 feet) above sea level.

Changes in the ice mass of Antarctica, Earth's largest freshwater reservoir, are important to understanding global sea level rise. Large amounts of Antarctic freshwater flowing into the ocean also could affect ocean salinity, currents and global climate.

Sony debuts flexible TV screen

crave.cnet.com :

Like many other TV makers, Sony has been working on screens made with organic light-emitting diodes for some time to produce paper-thin displays as well as save energy. But ratcheting up the competition even further, it just unveiled what it calls the world's first flexible version.

The company claims to have developed a new technology that uses plastic instead of glass to make OLED screens that can actually bend (hopefully without breaking), according to Pink Tentacle. Its 2.5-inch prototype weighs only 1.5 grams.

Why food costs more

This article belongs to the Global food crisis story arc.

canada.com :

After steamrolling through a laundry list of base metals, then oil and gas, the global commodity boom is finally hitting us in the gut: at the supermarket checkout counter. Global milk prices are rising at the fastest rate ever. Powdered milk, a key benchmark, has jumped 60% in six months to US$1.58 at the beginning of May. Since 2000, beef prices have jumped nearly 30% on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. The experts have coined a new term to describe the phenomenon. They call it agflation, and they blame the hedge funds.

Hedge funds have been pouring money into commodity exchanges, driving up prices and transforming backwater grain bourses like the Kansas City Board of Trade and the Winnipeg Commodity Exchange into highstakes casinos. Since 2005, corn has nearly doubled. Wheat is up 50% in the same period, while canola, one of the biggest crops on the Canadian prairie, has climbed 34%. Many of the hedge funds are trend players, who make bets based on the technical details around the direction they think prices are heading, moving in and out of the market with lightning speed. For them, volatility is an opportunity to make money.

And the bad news for consumers is that although the hedge funds have helped drive food prices through the roof, the reality of stronger global demand could eventually push them even higher. China isn't going to go away, and its middle class - the segment of the population that accounts for most of the increased consumption - is swelling in size by about 40 million people annually.

And the emergence of the biofuels industry, the other main driver in the demand picture, is gaining steam as well. Meanwhile, on the supply side of the equation agricultural production has not kept pace. "For seven of the past eight years the world has not been able to produce enough food to meet demand, but you just can't keep on consuming more than you produce, " said Bill Gary, president of research firm Commodity Information Systems.

- Let's see, in short : 1. hedge funds, 2. growing demand, 3. biofuels, 4. supply shortfall. It's a heck of a knockout combination.

World population becomes more urban than rural : 23 May 2007

slashdot.org -> news.ncsu.edu :

There's no big countdown billboard or sign in Times Square to denote it, but Wednesday, May 23, 2007, represents a major demographic shift, according to scientists from North Carolina State University and the University of Georgia: For the first time in human history, the earth's population will be more urban than rural.

Working with United Nations estimates that predict the world will be 51.3% urban by 2010, the researchers projected the May 23, 2007, transition day based on the average daily rural and urban population increases from 2005 to 2010. On that day, a predicted global urban population of 3,303,992,253 will exceed that of 3,303,866,404 rural people.

Though the date is highly symbolic, the researchers – Dr. Ron Wimberley, Distinguished Professor of Sociology at NC State; Dr. Libby Morris, director of the Institute of Higher Education at the University of Georgia; and Dr. Gregory Fulkerson, a sociologist at NC State – advise avoiding the urge to interpret this demographic transition to mean that the urban population has greater importance than the rural. Urban and rural populations, they say, rely heavily on each other.

Wimberley says that May 23, 2007, marks a "mayday" call for all concerned citizens of the world. "So far, cities are getting whatever resource needs that can be had from rural areas," he said. "But given global rural impoverishment, the rural-urban question for the future is not just what rural people and places can do for the world's new urban majority. Rather, what can the urban majority do for poor rural people and the resources upon which cities depend for existence? The sustainable future of the new urban world may well depend upon the answer."

(2007-06-07 11:01:56 SGT) [Env] Permalink

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