Neil Young and His Electric Car

Actually, it is a 1959 Linc-Volt converted to electric. It is great to see Neil Young being involved in such a project with a whole heart. Like several celebs - although Young is far from being a typical celebrity - he is experimenting with the electric car as well. But the difference is that he is actually involved in the very project of conversion of the car in a most intimate way.

Please check these two videos. Neil Young discussing his electric car Linc-Volt 1959 project with David Latterman's late show:



And again Neil, this time discussing the project more broadly while driving the car before the project started:

Electric Cars! Now or never!

Yes, they are definitely coming! Actually, electric cars have already been around for a while, but for various reasons (some of these reasons are worthy of a great conspiracy theory!), they did not make it to the market or to the roads in big numbers. Well, yet. The oil crises and the environmental crisis stimulate a revitalization of electric cars technology as I write this.

I am far from expert on cars. So, instead of trying to sound smart and knowledgeable, I decided to share with you few some - carefully selected! - youtube videos about electric cars which I think are very informative.

Ross Cunniff's Porche Volt 914 converted to Electric car. With a very good explanation and demostration.


See also His Blog about this car. There you can read that, converting energy efficiency scale to MPG (Miles Per Gallon - US Gallon to be sure), he makes the equivalent of impressive 108 MPG! That is over 130 Miles per Imperial Gallon, which is below 3 litres per 100 km! And this is not the most efficient electric car out there.

On the other hand, the electric sports car (using a bit more energy per 100 km) can easily compete with the best Ferrari or Porsche sports cars. A youtube video which was seen well over 1.26o.ooo times demonstrates that no petrol run sports car can compare with the accelerations of this electric car.


But there is a great combination of these two qualities as well: A British-US combined production. Lotus Tesla Roadster Electric car - sexy as well as groovy, they say. This is the BBC World coverage about this car:


You can find of course all kinds of other stuff related to electric cars on Youtube. For example, videos on how Lithium Polymer Batteries for Electric Cars are made, a 245 Miles per Gallon Electric car, or an excellent documentary, "Who Killed Electric cars? Part 1". The other parts you can easily find on the "Related Videos" section on Youtube, at the right lower corner of the page. I will comment on this documentary in the following days on this blog.

Well, look, enjoy, and think about it. It might very well have something to do with your transportation in the future after all.

Eco-friendly Christian Conversion

It was interesting to read the story and views of Dr. J. Matthew Sleeth, a former emergency room doctor who's Christian experience serves as his motivation for caring for the planet. I recomend browsing his website. If you are a Christian, you might find his way of thinking inspiring (connections he makes are great, responsible and non-fanatical). If you are not, you may find it just interesting.

Serve God Save the Planet Website.

Looking for Eco-Friendly Lifestyle Workshops

When confronted with challenges how to change your lifestyle in order to live more eco-friendly, it is often difficult to know which decisions to make. Not because there is any lack of information (there are loads!), but because it is difficult to know which things are more important and which less, for me right now. How much effort to put into trying to use alternative means of transport, and how much into careful recycling and replacing plastic bags with the "organic" ones, for example? (It sounds simplistic, but you get the point) It does not help to say that every aspect is important, because to many people who think about starting a more eco-friendly lifestyle, all new imperatives of green living are just overwhelming! It is impossible to listen to all the advice at the same time, and of course majority claim that his or her environmental issue is the most important.

Therefore, strategies are needed, how and where to start with small changes, a real pedagogical guidence is needed as to what steps could be taken, and of course, we need to be taught a different way of life when greater changes are proposed to us or even demanded of us. Changing the lifestyle is not an easy matter, usually we are unable to do any greater changes if not being very determined to practice the new routines and starting all over again when we fail.

Therefore, I really want to see more workshops, real training classes, courses, tutorials etc. on how to live an eco-friendly life. Here in Cambridge, besides the excellent University and secondary education, there are many different afternoon classes for grown up people available in lots of places like schools, societies and governmental institutions. You can learn Polish, Mandarine, Urdu, gardening, writing poetry; there are classes like "Colours, Style and Make Up", "Egyptian Belly Dancing ", "Ceramics " and "Wine Appreciation advanced", but I have not yet seen a real course or a serious workshop called "Eco friendly Life-Style" or "How to Live Greener?" or something similar. Perhaps I just didn't see it. Or perhaps, this has not been put into practice yet (To be fair, I have seem that primary and I am sure also secondary schools have elements in the curricula dedicated to the topic, which is of course great).

Coal-Fired Power Station and Environmental Problem

The latest environmental debate over coal (to be exact: it's about "a new generation of coal-fired power stations") demonstrates the baffling complexity of eco-friendly decision-making.

Most environmentalists are against the usage of coal for energy. Coal-fire produces great ammounts of geenhouse gases, and it is not a renewable source of energy. Therefore, they strongly oppose investing into coal-fired power stations, they want to close them down. Seems reasonable.

But things are not that simple. First, there are parts of the world which rely rather heavily on coal for their power production and where coal-fired power stations are extremely important source of energy and increasingly so.

UK energy minister, Malcolm Wicks, says that "...world demand for coal is projected to rise by 70% by 2030, an average annual rate of 2.2%, and the bulk of the rise will come from India and China." This is indeed worrying. Wicks concludes that the only solution for the west (he has first Britain, and then Europe in mind) is to develop a technology of "carbon capture and storage" (CCS), by which it is hoped 90% of greenhouse gases from coal-fired powerstations will be cut.

He puts it this way: ""But the real gain here, the real challenge - and if we do not meet the challenge, all is lost on global warming, the stakes are that high - is to bring on clean coal technology and carbon capture and storage."

He criticises environmentalists for being unrealistic. Giving up on coal now and closing down coal-fired power stations in Britain and Europe seems useless - it is completely idealistic to think that China and India will simply follow when these countries are so dependant on coal. Actually, if Wicks is right, it is counter productive: only Europe is in position to develop the CCS technology which could make coal usage drastically cleaner. If we leave this, the ecological disaster is sure on its way.

So, who is right? Enviromnentalists, who demand radical action and abandonment of coal usage? Or the energy minister? The decisions how to tackle this issue are not simple and energy minister's arguments strike me as more balanced in this issue, and actually eco-friendly in the long run as well. Please comment, especially if you disagree - I want to hear arguments for the contrary.

Ross Lovegrove: Organic Essentialism

Ross Lovegrove is a very successful designer. Being known for his work on sony walkman in former times, today he is one of the leading industrial designers, especially interested in "organic" and eco friendly transformation of culture through design. His ideas are surely novel and inspiring, but I rather invite You to browse his work through the following links and think about it yourself.

His official website doesn't show or tell you that much, but the its very basicality is fun in itself.

He has received many prestigious awards, among others, by CNN. See more about him on his CNN Biography website.

To see some discussion of his best known ideas today (some - like his eco-trees in Vienna - are already put to practice), also some critical remarks, see the pages on "Lovegrove solar trees" and "Lovegrove's car on a stick".

And lastly, see his 20 minute lecture where he explains his philosophy and approach to what he does.

What do you think of his ideas? It is a joy to watch them and ponder the possibilities, but I agree with some of the criticisms, especially on his "car on the stick" project. It is much too impersonal. Our western individualistic culture is, I believe, quite irreversible in many respects, benefits and joys of "having it your own way" are too great to sacrifice them for this otherwise neat and sci-fi-coming-to-reality idea. An element of control when driving a car, and personalizing it, is too important, the project can not succeed as it is presented now.