cars
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Gas 'n' Uh-oh
40 percent — petroleum’s share of global energy consumed in 1998 $246 — amount spent by the author on gasoline to drive a 1987 Honda Accord 5,700 miles on a cross-country road trip from Feb. 15 to March 15, 2000 $433 — estimated amount the author would have spent if he had driven a new […]
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And wishing I'd left the car at home
Editor’s note: Actor and environmental activist Ed Begley, Jr., journeyed last month in a natural-gas car from his hometown of Los Angeles to Des Moines, Iowa, site of the nation’s first political caucuses, to raise the profile of clean-car technology. Here he relates his (mis)adventures. Ed — happier in a tree than in a car. […]
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Car Talk
70 million motor vehicles were on the world’s roads in 1950 630 million motor vehicles were on the world’s roads in 1994 1 billion motor vehicles are expected to be on the world’s roads by 2025, if the current growth rate continues 12,000 pounds of carbon dioxide are emitted by the average car each year […]
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An excerpt from Seven Wonders: Everyday Things for a Healthier Planet by John C. Ryan
When the Dalai Lama of Tibet met with economist John Kenneth Galbraith, he asked the Harvard professor a simple but penetrating question: "What would the world be like if everyone drove a motor car?" The Tibetan leader probably did not intend it, but his question constitutes a koan, a paradoxical riddle of Zen Buddhist tradition. A koan has no logical answer -- "What is the sound of one hand clapping?" -- but the search for a solution may lead to a flash of enlightenment.
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I Am the Triax, I Speak for the Cars
General Motors is taking a step forward in the race to produce green cars with an announcement today that it has developed a new concept vehicle, called the Triax, that can operate with a range of power sources, including gasoline, hybrid, and electric systems powered by either batteries or fuel cells. In the meantime, U.S. […]
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Golf Doesn't Attract Drivers and Beetles Don't Have the Juice
The winners on the EPA’s annual list of the most fuel-efficient cars and trucks are losers in the marketplace. The most fuel-efficient cars, those getting at least 40 mpg, represent just 0.57 percent of the U.S. market. Light trucks such as the Land Rover Range Rover — the least efficient SUV on the EPA’s list, […]
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Without a Car in the World
The city of Bremen, Germany, is trying to convince its residents to abandon car ownership by giving them access to an ultra-modern public transport system and a car-sharing program that lets citizens quickly and cheaply rent vehicles at 37 city locations. Bremen officials say the effect of their program, which was launched in 1990, is […]
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Reinventing the Wheels
EU ambassadors voted yesterday in favor of a bill that would force automakers to take back old cars and pay for the cost of recycling or reusing them, overriding opposition from Germany. The bill, which still needs approval from the EU parliament, would cover all cars produced in 2001 or later. By 2006, automakers would […]
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A Big Bright Green Pleasure Machine
They are intrepid: Navigator, Explorer, Expedition, Blazer. They are virile and exotic: Bronco, Cherokee, Laredo, Tahoe. They are your friends: Amigo. They are even, on occasion, honest about themselves: Suburban. SUVs are huge and getting huger by the model year. One need not pore over market statistics (SUVs now represent about 20 percent of the […]
