The Environmental Technology of the New James Bond
007 isn't generally known for being friendly to anything except the ladies. So being friendly to the Earth certainly hasn't ever mattered. The question is, now that green-tech is awesome, and green-style is sexy, what's a Bond to do?
Quantum of Solace seems to take two stances on the issue.
First, green chic is lame. The lead villain of the movie (who shares my last name, unfortunately) is beyond greenwashing. His energy company has been pretending to buy up ecologically sensitive areas, but really he's trying to control the world's water. Sounds like a page out of T. Boone's playbook to me.
And as Greene tries to raise money for his faux-organization, we see the private-jet-flying, schmoozy, evening-balling lameness that I know exists (but have yet to be invited into...for some reason.) Daniel and Olga look smashing, of course, but you can see right through the facade. It's just another reason for rich people to get together and celebrate how rich they are.
Anyone in the movie who appears to give a crap about the environment for it's own sake isn't just full of themselves, they're also the kind of person who is likely to dine on Florida Panther just because it's hard to get. The message is clear, this "being green to be cool thing" is over, in the eyes of Bond. And Bond is the leader of cool, as far as a lot of the world is concerned.
On the other hand, clean technologies suddenly start looking pretty damned cool. A half-Russian, half-South American bond chic cruises around in a Ford Ka. It's likely that you've never heard of the Ka, that's because they don't sell them in America. But it's basically Ford's answer to the Smart Car. A little larger, but ultra-cheap and it gets 38 mpg.
Bond starts out the movie completely destroying a 13 mpg Aston Martin, showing the kind of distaste toward that obsolete technology as an EcoGeek might respect. While, in the end of the film, he's treating his new hydrogen-powered Ford Edge like a baby, because he obviously loves the technology so much.
The Ka and the H2 Edge are genuine examples of the kind of technology that might one day make our lives and the world a better place. It's a long way from exploding cuff links, and a long way in the right direction, as far as EcoGeek is concerned.
(keep reading to see Bond escape in the Ka)