Need or Greed…Sustainability or waste

What do people need to survive?

But what happens to our rubbish and sewage?

Researchers have devised a way of measuring our impact on the environment. It is called our ecological footprint.

The world has an area of 1.7hectares per person available.At current level of consumption, we are using 2.3 hectares.Londoners use 3 hectares and Americans use 8.4 hectares per person. (10 times greater than a similar sized city in India.)

Is there anything you can do to change the size of your footprint?

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What if your cell phone could charge just by being in your pocket?

What if you could pedal your way around in a Shweeb?

Imagine being able to drive your car to the airport, fly it over water and then land it on a faraway island?

Shenzhen’s bus can reportedly hold 1200 to 1400 passengers and could cut traffic jams by 20% to 30%. The partially solar-powered system can travel up to 50 mph — and it’s coming to China in 2011. It may also be introduced in USA.

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WorldFirst

WorldFirst Racing's Eco Friendly Car

Christopher

SzaboUnlike the new ecoF3 racer, this 1980s gas guzzler swallowed fuel like it swallowed the miles. Here a pit crew fi lls up a Porsche 956 Le Mans car at a historic racing event in South Africa.

A team from Warwick University in the U.K. has designed an eco-friendly racing car that could run on chocolate and vegetable oil. WorldFirst hopes their car, the ecoF3 will contribute to new materials technology used in motor racing.                                                                                                     The prototype car has a steering wheel made of carrots, bodywork made of potatoes and a seat made of soybeans. Fibres extracted from the vegetables are mixed with resins and recycled products to form the components. The car gets its fuel from chocolate and other plant-based materials that are refined to produce the vehicle’s fuel and lubricants. The ecoF3 is based on a standard Lola chassis and can reach more than 200 km/h and corners as well as any other racing car.

Eco-Friendly Racing Car to Run on Chocolate May 2, 2009 ■ Christopher Szabo

Formula Three will not allow the car on the track because regulations do not permit the fuels, but a spokesman for the team’s backers said they hoped: “Formula One teams will see that an environmentally friendly car is not necessarily a slow car.”

Unlike the new ecoF3 racer, this 1980s gas guzzler swallowed fuel like it swallowed the miles. Here a pit crew fills up a Porsche 956 Le Mans car at a historic racing event in South Africa.

Did you know that by 2020, Israel wants to be completely oil independent, replacing its 2 million cars with electric vehicles. The Mitsubishi iMiEV - short for

Mitsubishi innovative Electric Vehicle - is an electric version of the funky little i-car which has been on sale in New Zealand for a couple of years.It has a top speed of 130km/h and a range of 160 kilometresA top speed of 130km/h and a range of 160 kilometres

Biofuels like ethanol can help reduce global warming and create jobs for the rural poor, but the benefits may be offset by serious environmental problems and increased food prices for the hungry, the United Nations concluded Tuesday in its first major report on bioenergy.Biofuels, which are made from corn, palm oil, sugar cane and other agricultural products, have been seen by many as a cleaner and cheaper way to meet the world’s soaring energy needs than with greenhouse-gas emitting fossil fuels.“You cannot fight climate change by large deforestation in Indonesia.

Fields of corn surround the Golden Grain Energy ethanol plant in Mason City, Iowa.

There are 600 million cars on the roads today. That figure could triple by 2050, with increasing demand from the developing world.

How can we encourage people to think before they drive?

Large cities in the developed world are playing their part. What can we do?

Electric trams , Barcelona

Take the Green car test http://planetgreen.discovery.com/games-quizzes/green-car-savvy-quiz/index.htmlVote for the best green car.http://planetgreen.discovery.com/games-quizzes/vote-green-cars.html

Paris, London, Barcelona, Taipei, Chicago, Denver, Washington and several other cities around the world have bike-sharing programs and it seems like a trend that is catching on. New York recently announced that it will be bringing bike sharing to its streets. An electronic credit card or prepaid smart card would be used to unlock the bikes.

What about pedal power?

Energy footprints… How do we consume?

Energy footprints are indicators for humans’ use of renewable energy resources.An energy footprint represents the area a country needs in order to maintain the current amount of energy it uses.

The Middle East has 65% of the world’s oil resources, yet consumes only 5.9% of the world’s oil. Strange isn’t it?

How can you and your family use less fuel?

Investigate an alternative to oil as a source of energy for transport.