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Nissan’s New Electric Hatchback

  • Posted by
  • July 27, 2009

Nissan showed off its latest EV prototype today, a slick four-door, five-passenger hatchback that’s good for 100 miles and tells you when and where to charge up.

Although it’s just a mule wearing a Tiida body, the car provides the best glimpse yet of the production EV we’ll see for the first time Sunday. Nissan plans to offer an all-electric vehicle in Japan and the United States next year, then roll it out globally in 2012.

“Nissan will be a leader in zero-emission vehicles,” Toshiyuki Shiga said in Tokyo, according to Canadian Press. “EV is the answer.”

Vote For the “7 Wonders of the Natural World”

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  • July 27, 2009

Recently, 28 finalists were announced in the search for the “SevenWonders of the Natural World” initiative, being sponsored by the New 7 Foundation. Of the 28, the public has been given the task of voting to choose 7, and the foundation hopes to get over 1 billion votes. This program was launched to foster conservancy, both of the specific wonders and of the world’s ecosystems in general, and the nonprofit hopes to inspire the citizens of the world through ecotourism and increased publicity and public sympathy for conservancy. You can vote online. Visit the ENN Community: http://blog.enn.com/

Vote For the “7 Wonders of the Natural World”

  • Posted by
  • July 27, 2009

Recently, 28 finalists were announced in the search for the “SevenWonders of the Natural World” initiative, being sponsored by the New 7 Foundation. Of the 28, the public has been given the task of voting to choose 7, and the foundation hopes to get over 1 billion votes. This program was launched to foster conservancy, both of the specific wonders and of the world’s ecosystems in general, and the nonprofit hopes to inspire the citizens of the world through ecotourism and increased publicity and public sympathy for conservancy. You can vote online. Visit the ENN Community: http://blog.enn.com/

Hydrocarbons in the deep Earth?

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  • July 27, 2009

The oil and gas that fuels our homes and cars started out as living organisms that died, were compressed, and heated under heavy layers of sediments in the Earth’s crust. Scientists have debated for years whether some of these hydrocarbons could also have been created deeper in the Earth and formed without organic matter. Now for the first time, scientists have found that ethane and heavier hydrocarbons can be synthesized under the pressure-temperature conditions of the upper mantle —the layer of Earth under the crust and on top of the core. The research was conducted by scientists at the Carnegie Institution’s Geophysical Laboratory, with colleagues from Russia and Sweden, and is published in the July 26, advanced on-line issue of Nature Geoscience.

Comment on the Latest News on the US Climate Bill

  • Posted by
  • July 26, 2009

Yesterday, Agriculture Committee Chairman Tom Harkin spoke out about the upcoming formation of a US climate bill, saying that the bill needs an “off ramp” built into the bill itself in case other nations fail to meet their climate legislation’s goals. This “off ramp” should, according to an article by Reuters’ Charles Abbott, “allow the United States to relax its greenhouse gas rules if other nations fail to control theirs.” The price of farm upkeep is expected to climb with the instatement of a formal climate law, and Harkin casually explained his thinking with “If other countries don’t join us… hey, we’re off the ramp.” Farm groups are the biggest proponent of the ramp idea because “US farmers would be at a disadvantage on the export market if other nations kept their prices low by not curbing carbon emissions,” according to Abbott.

New Biofuel Could Lead to 100% Clean Flights

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  • July 24, 2009

Earlier this month, a team of scientists at the University of North Dakota’s Energy and Environmental Research Center (EERC) successfully tested a new biofuel based on a mixture of canola and soybean oils, and claim it may be the key to zero emission aviation.

Global Biofuel Market to Top One-Quarter Trillion

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  • July 24, 2009

A recently released biofuels report by the Pike Institute held a positive outlook for biofuels, which will be supplemented by increasingly advanced feedstocks, but will eventually face competition from drop-in fuels like “green gasoline and renewable diesel.”

US vehicle efficiency hardly changed since Model T

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  • July 23, 2009

The average fuel efficiency of the US vehicle fleet has risen by just 3 miles per gallon since the days of the Ford Model T, and has barely shifted at all since 1991.

US vehicle efficiency hardly changed since Model T

  • Posted by
  • July 23, 2009

The average fuel efficiency of the US vehicle fleet has risen by just 3 miles per gallon since the days of the Ford Model T, and has barely shifted at all since 1991.

Coal giant offers cash for biggest clean rival

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  • July 22, 2009

Canada’s biggest generator of dirty power has launched a hostile bid for the country’s leading developer of clean power, which could be the first of many moves in an energy sector that sees big polluters trying to green up their assets.