Image Oerlikon Racing Team

The Zerotracer is another innovative Swiss concept in the form of a full shell motorbike powered by an electric engine. The body of the bike is made from kevlar composite and it features two retractable wheels for stationary support. The interior has a stereo system, 2 inline bucket seats, a heating system and allows for a 250-degree view through the acrylic glass windshield.

The Zero Emission Race Team intends to round the globe in 80 days, crossing 16 countries and stop in 100 different cities, like Paris, Vienna, Moscow, Shanghai, Vancouver, San Francisco, Mexico City and Madrid. The Journey will start on August 15th, 2010 in Geneva Switzerland and leads eastwards over 30′000 km (18641 miles), crossing Europe, Russia, China, the US and Mexico, to finally end again in Geneva, previously on January 11th, 2011.  The challenge will help to test the vehicle and spread awareness about transportation issues and innovative ways to use renewable energy sources.

To make the Zerotracer fit for a distance of 300 km (186.5 mi) it just takes a fast charge of half an hour to 80% of full capacity.

Tech specs:

Passengers: 2
Payload: 200kg
Reach per full charge: 350km (217.5 mi.)
Top Speed: 250 km/h (155 mph)
0-100km/h (0-62 mph): 4.5 seconds
Weight: 640 kg
Consumption@80 km/h (50 mph): 7 kWh
Full Charge: 2 hrs @ 9.9 kW
Motor: 135 kW/ 185 Hp
Battery Pack 18 kWh,400V,160k

More information: Zerotracer.com

SAM (for “Sustainable Automotive Mobility”) is a small and appealing 3-wheeler electric car ideal for commuting over short to medium distances in urban and suburban areas. SAM has just been officially launched in May 2010 and is presently available through a network of qualified partners in Switzerland, Germany and Poland.

SAM is the brainchild of Swiss Cree Ltd. and the industrial design company Bene Creative Resource and was initially presented in 2001 as a test-serial encompassing 80 units for public field testing and market studies, which drew a lot of attention from both, public and media. However a lack of venture capital prevented a timely launch and stalled the project for quite some time.

But the development team was not defeated and their wit, persistence and creativity finally paid off. Not only did they acquire the licensing rights for the SAM and rise the necessary funds by privately issuing titles for their own, in 2007 founded company Swiss SAM Group Ltd., but they also developed a proprietary battery pack, replacing the former acid lead batteries, and established industrial partnerships, the main one being with Impact Automotive Technologies in Poland for further development and small scale production.

SAM Group Ltd. has a clear strategy, based on organic growth, customer support and on a strong vision for:

• Pollution free Mobility for people in urban and suburban regions
• A well defined and convincing overall concept
• Low production and distribution costs – high affordability
• An attractive and distinct design
• The fun factor – an enjoyable driving experience

The following videos are from the initial 2001  test series – nevertheless they convey some of the fun experienced when piloting a SAM

SAM being of a minimalistic yet attractive and functional design is not just another EV hitting the road, but a confession to a lifestyle meeting all expectations in regard to ecology, economy and efficiency, and apart from offering an earth friendly mode of transport it certainly caters to the emotions too.

For further and more technical details, pricing and contact information, please visit the official SAM Website.

The author of said article must have lost it to the same extent as the politicians have when indulging in their favorite pasttime. I especially liked the third sentence of the article: “But while the sceptics continue to pick over the bones of Copenhagen, the officials behind the scenes have been getting on with the process and it looks like eventually they are making progress”. Yes, the politicians act behind the scenes, completely ignoring truth and reality and push on with “the process” of saving their back’s lower end instead of the planet.

The article has nothing much to offer apart from some buoyancy based on wishful thinking and I believe, in this it resembles “the process” of the few that intend to shuffle tax money – which is not their money – into a bankrupt economy – wanted to say into their pockets – by promoting a hoax. Insofar the article is even honest, as it admits the 100 billions annually will most probably come from public funding (your tax-bill), taxes on carbon intensive activities like aviation (you won’t go on vacation anymore by flight – you cannot afford it) and loans (great, let’s print some more money – we save the economy with more debt…).

“All countries have agreed” to save the rainforests and now “they just need to agree the best way to fund rainforest nations and ensure deforestation is not happening” – great! But have I missed out on something? Well never mind, this is a sound idea – just use the funds to balance  their debt towards the rich nations, so they don’t have to cut trees to pay their bill with the proceedings.

All is so simple. Why cannot everyone see it? Suddenly I see it very clearly – this is the solution: “Also the UN has commissioned two papers on what has been promised so far that will enable fair comparisons between different countries for the first time. This could force countries that are not pulling their weight to act.” Yes, force them – sh.t on democracy – we need the term democracy anyway only to cover our hypocrisy, otherwise it is of no use. We go and bomb some other nations, kill their people (collateral damage, you know) and whoever does not want to play our game is forced by some decree on some paper that nobody has ever ratified. United Nations – unite!

“The US refuses to be part of any global agreement until developing nations like China also agree to cut emissions. However China will not sign up to anything that limits economic growth and insist the US makes deep cuts first. It seemed the two superpowers could stop the world reaching agreement but both sides are softening their stance.” Pardon me – what? Now…China developing nation or superpower? Well the US is certainly a developing nation  – who isn’t with a broken economy, exploding unemployment rates, homeless citizens and a dozen trillions of debts. But their president is busy saving the planet right now and will save the nation maybe thereafter.

I have (what I think are) some really good suggestions for the people, who will still fly in their governmental airplanes, even long after Joe the plumber cannot afford flying anymore:

1. If you want to do something useful, get yourself a pair of rubber boots and go help cleaning up the oil spill (BP is said to have bought the search term ‘oil spill’ to disperse the overspilling rage – dispersants seem to be part of their business…).

WKRG.com News

2. when you finished there – or maybe even better before you leave for the gulf – make some peace in the world by calling your boys back from places where they are lost and have nothing lost, where they only experience and create tremendous suffering (they d’rather help you in the cleanup).

3. get some funding together to fund research for alternative sources of energy – could be permanent magnet motors, cold fusion, hydrogen technology or anything else, that frees us from oil and from CO2 (and from spills and nukes and stupid taxes). Hey this is helping the economy, it will create jobs – and it doesn’t even cost a fraction of what you want to spend on the hoax. If you feel like spending some more though, put it into reforestation programs. Trees are beautiful and help cooling the planet – and they thrive on carbon dioxide.

4. retire and feel good about yourself and be cheerful, because you did something that really helped the planet and the people.

Al Gore at the inauguration of his latest pet project, the Climate Change Memorial, said that he was glad to be out of the carbon swindle, because it was getting too much of a burden on his conscience and that he had started to suffer from sleeping disorders and could not even enjoy lazing around at the pool of his splendid mansion anymore.

“See, I had tremendous success in creating the biggest hoax ever – even I myself was surprised that everyone bought it. But then at some point, I started to realize how harmful it really was, but by that time I was already completely drawn in. This created enormous tension for me and I just wanted to get out” and he continued pointing towards his pet icebear “he really helped me to regain my mental balance. Together we went for long walks in nature and this somehow made me aware, that it is not all just money and power – there is more to life.”

Al Gore has since worked for building the Climate Change Memorial in his spare time. “I want to do something for the people. See, this.. [carbon swindle] has made me tremendously rich – now it’s all about giving back”.

Al Gore proudly presents his latest pet project - the Climate Change Memorial

Energy is – what many people have called – the master resource. And if you control energy, you control everything. Everything you make, use or do starts with an infusion of energy and requires energy for every step all along the way up to the point where you use it. If you control that, you control the people.

from the video “climate chains”

The Celtic Ragas Band has gained some fame playing at Paul McCartney’s wedding in Ireland in 2002 (“I love the unique blend of Irish and Indian style music of Celtic Ragas. It has become one of my favourites.” Paul McCartney), but more recently has given a series of multimedia ‘Concerts for India’s Environment’ in India. These aim to raise awareness about the many difficulties facing the natural and human environment in India because of unrestrained ‘development’. These have also turned Chinmaya Dunster into a filmmaker with the film ‘Concert for India’s Environment’, which he completed in 2007. “I spent many satisfying days deep in the Indian wilderness collecting wildlife footage for this, and travelled to some remote places for interviews and shots of the people who live around and depend on the wilderness”, says Chinmaya Dunster about his work

Chinmaya Dunster has a collaboration with Dr Erach Bharucha (his guide and mentor to India’s environmental issues and presenter of the ‘Concert’ film), helping edit his books and spread the conservation message through film.

If you happen to be in Dehli at the time, you are invited to enjoy the event.

Chinmaya Dunster writes:

You are all invited to my performance with Sandeep Srivastav and the Celtic Ragas Band at British Council, New Delhi on 2nd Feb at 7pm. It promises to be a unique mutimedia event. I have compiled an hour of amazing video on the subject of climate change, and we have composed new songs to help inspire awareness of this …and other green issues. Plus we’ll be playing some of my old hits too of course……

To learn more about Chinmaya Dunster’s work and to enjoy some of his beautiful music Videos, please visit his website at: www.chinmaya-dunster.com

The reactor would not produce so-called greenhouse gases that contribute to global warming and Energy in the form of electricity and helium gas would be the reactor’s only products. If complications arose during operation, the reactor would quickly shut itself down.

According to researchers from UC Irvine and the University of Florida the developing safe and cost-efficient new sources of energy is imperative, because existing nuclear fission power plants built in the 1950s and ’60s must be closed down within this decade as their operation licenses expire. A license typically is valid from 40 to 50 years; the plants must be closed due to radiation damage, and many components must be buried due to high levels of radioactivity.

The english news service Independent.co.uk in its January 11th, 2010 edition has published an article by Pat Pilcher that states such a reactor has been devised by UCI physics professor Norman Rostoker, UCI research physicist Michl Binderbauer, and University of Florida physics professor Hendrik Monkhorst. The principle of this reactor is based on a collision of beams of boron and hydrogen particles that would be sent into a reactor where magnets would cause the beams to bend, causing the nuclei to collide and fuse. The fusion would create energetic-charged particles that could then be converted directly into electrical power at an efficiency of about 90 %, compared with, at most, 40 percent for a traditional coal-burning power plant or a deuterium-tritium Tokamak fusion reactor – which has been a long-planned project for a $10 billion research facility, but which would not lead to a viable reactor in the opinion of the researchers.

The newly proposed technology is the product of five years of investigation, that have been devoted mainly to reactor design questions, instead of focusing on fusion experiments and theory that eventually might lead to reactors, Rostoker explained, and it could be implemented into a commercial reactor – funded by private investors – within 10 years.

The article in the Independent has cited the NZ Herald as source of this information, where the same article by the same author has been published on the same date. Interestingly, this information has been released on November 20, 1997 (not a typo! – also see Science Blog ) and by now we should all have clean, green, cheap energy! I leave it up to you to draw your conclusions, but I feel it would have made a good topic at the recent CO2penhagen summit for fundraising!

Well, obviously it is something that has not been shelved completely and work in this direction is going on, as we can learn from this youtube video (hope it’s not just tinkering with it to keep the students busy…). So we might hope to see it some day.

The comment on youtube for this video reads as follows:

We are a group of students at UMass Lowell that are building a type of fusion reactor called a Farnsworth Fusor.

Fusion has been conventionally done by heating a gas to such a high temperature that the average particle of gas has enough energy to overcome the coulombic repulsion of another particles nucleus so that it can fuse.

Instead we use 2 concentric spherical grids one of which is at a high negative potential to produce an electric field that accelerates the ionized gas to high enough velocities to fuse. The associated technology and cost of operations is many times less that the big budget fusion projects like ITER, while still producing a continuous nuclear fusion reaction.

The system consists of a vacuum system which evacuates our stainless steel vessel. We then use a variable autotransformer to control an input voltage for our high-voltage transformer. The transformer supplies anywhere from negative 10,000 to 50,000 volts to our central grid.

This video highlights our first plasma achieved. No fusion is actually ocurring in this video as the chamber is filled with air at medium vacuum pressure. To actually produce fusion reactions we will fill the chamber with it’s fuel, deuterium gas.

Deuterium gas? – thought it’s just hydrogen and boron… well anyway, please be careful not blow up the lab!

BTW: There are many different private efforts to make this work, here just an example: http://www.thermonuclearfusionreactor.co.uk/

Change happens undoubtedly by itself. Exposure and revelations, the stroke of fate or new discoveries happen at any time and give our existence a new twist. We can either look into the future in despair or full of hope and anticipation. It really is a question of perspective. While challenges are a part of our earthly presence we can either perceive them as something “bad” and undesired – or we can accept them as a great opportunity for growth.

The question how we are going to experience the future is really whether we accept the opportunity to learn and evolve through such challenges, or whether we reject the offer and hang on to old ways that have provided us with a certain sense of security in the past, but that have now clearly shown to have outlived their validity. To cling or to release is the fundamental choice of our free will.

I personally trust that truth always has a trick up its sleeve to gain in live affirmative momentum that balances the equation, thus turning any given situation into a stepping stone that furthers our understanding, growth and development. However it might sometimes take routes that at first are hard to follow, and occurrences might be hard to comprehend as their outcome is not immediately foreseeable when they occur. When we look back later though we understand that all this had a certain purpose – even if it was just to break habits and situations that were not really good for us in the long run.

I think by the end of this beginning decade we will look back in amazement over the developments that catapulted the global community into a completely new reality in just ten short years. In bewilderment we will ask ourselves, how ever we could or wanted to live the way we were living only twenty years back, at the beginning of the 21st century.

The following video is a composition of predictions from the “Unknown” for the year 2010 from the Sedona Journal’s December 2009 edition, compiled by Peter Beamish. The soundtrack is called “Amazing” by the band “one Eskimo”.

The Swiss Inventor Eduard Haas

My relation to batteries has turned a bit special when I met the decorated Swiss inventor Eduard Haas some years back. He had created and patented a battery (Swiss Patent No. CH 690 081 issued on 04/14/2000) consisting of sheets of carbon (graphite or compounded carbon dust) and magnesium that produced a pretty steady current when water was poured in. Ideally a little bit of table salt was added to enhance the electrolytic properties. A cell produced an electric potential difference (voltage) of about 1.5 volts regardless of it’s size, but the current (amperage) increased with size. Different values were read with different types of electrolyte used. The name “battery” is basically inaccurate for this device, as the term “battery” just describes an array of several cells and in general linguistic usage a battery describes a device that delivers power until it exhausts and needs to be disposed or recharged. Some battery types need to be primed by the manufacturer prior to use in order to be able to hold a charge – his invention produced electricity instantly when a liquid electrolyte was added. The proper designation for such a device is “galvanic element”, but this distinction is rather unimportant for the layman, as the device similar to any ordinary battery delivers direct current at a steady rate until either the electrolyte solution gets saturated with magnesium oxide and the current slowly decreases until the device goes off, or until one of the electrodes are used up. In the Haas cell not only water would work as an electrolyte, but also fruit juice, beer, sea water or other liquids (even urine would do the job).

Assembly of electrodes

The advantages of his cell over conventional lead acid batteries is obvious: the elements used show no harmful toxic properties to the environment and can easily be refitted (just a new set of magnesium plates would have to be inserted, as the carbon plates do not easily waste away) and the cell can be refreshed in an instant – once the output decreased, one simply has to exchange the electrolyte – water – to get the module back to it’s full capacity! Although the Haas cell is many times lighter than a heavy lead battery, the lower energy density would probably require more or bigger cells in order to generate the same output, so the lighter weight can but conditionally be stated as a further advantage.

Battery prototype consisting of several cells

Eduard (Edi) Haas bought an electric car of the make Skoda and replaced the lead-acid batteries with 13 of his magnesium-water batteries. He arranged them in such a way, that he would have to poor water into just one of the cells and from there it would spill over into all the others. Of course a pump would do the job on the inlet and his idea was to drain the water through a valve controlled outlet at a certain position, whenever electrolyte saturation was diminishing the output current. The motor of the car run on 84 Volts and produced an output of 15,4 kW. To achieve this, a current of 183 Ampére was needed. In order to get the right Voltage and Amperage, a set of small batteries was serially connected to produce sufficient voltage, while larger modules were connected in parallel to increase Amperage.

The electric Skoda at the workshop

He told me this anecdote: The police had stopped him on a test drive without number plates, before the car had passed the regulatory approval (remark: in Switzerland the number plates for a vehicle are issued in the name of the vehicles proprietor and are not transferred together with the vehicle in case of a trade). He explained to the police man, that he just wanted to try his vehicle, and that the procedure for approval was underway. Of course the police man would not accept this excuse and wanted to fine him. Mr. Haas told him that he would actually welcome a fine, as it would prove his driving on water. The policeman scratching his head abstained from issuing the ticket and instead escorted him back to his workshop.

Eduard (Edi) Haas in his workshop

When I met Eduard Haas, he was quite devastated. He had filed for a Swiss patent, but had – due to a lack of funds – neglected the international protection of his invention. Further he had no funds left to go in for proper technical evaluation of the cells parameters and he was negotiating with several people for a licensing, some of whom obviously tried to get all the details of his invention for free. I arranged a meeting between Haas and someone who could have put up the money for continuation, but this potential investor lost interest, after one of his acquaintanes working for the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich told him, that magnesium was problematic and would behave erratic as an electrode. However this was an inofficial statement and the cell has never undergone proper assessment. Although I helped Edi with some money to meet his most pressing personal obligations, I was not in the position to help financially for any further technical development and finally I ended up trying to keep his creditors at bay while I was calling or writing letters to just anybody I could think of with a potential to help furthering this development.

It was a lost battle from the beginning. Eduard Haas was getting increasingly desperate because his bank was unwilling to wait any longer for the downpayments of his mortgage and threatened with foreclosure. He called me once a week asking for any good news or for some more money and I grew increasingly disenchanted with the hopless search for funding with just vague information for an unproven product and with an incomplete patent protection. Whomever I contacted for funding declined in disbelief and the creditors started to grow very impatient with me, because of my asking them to be patient.

At some point all contact ceased. I don’t know what happened to Eduard Haas – but I assume he decided to leave his problems behind and escape into the next dimension, as he would announce at times in exasperation.

Now – some time later – the Japanese inventor Susumu Suzuki has come up with a similar principle: A battery that runs on water and can easily be recharged by simply injecting some water into the 1.5 Volt AA or AAA sized cell. The product is marketed under the brand NoPoPo (http://www.aquapowersystem.com) and has been received with astonishment by the audience. Although it does not have the same energy density as an alkaline battery, it is quite suitable for appliances that require low current and a cell can be recharged 4 to 5 times by repeatedly adding a few drops of water or other liquids.

The latest revelation regarding IPCC’s global warming hoax explains how this lie actually came into existence and is worth being read:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/6425269/The-real-climate-change-catastrophe.html

Why then this entire story? What is the idea behind it? Please watch the following sequence from the Movie “The Obama Deception” to get a basic understanding of the idea.

Watch global warming tax scheme in Educational & How-To | View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com

Yes, but…melting ice caps…vanishing glaciers…rising sea levels….?

If you go around the globe, you find no rise (in sea levels) anywhere.
But they need the rise, because if there is no rise, there is no
death threat. They say there is nothing good to come from a
sea-level rise, only problems, coastal problems. If you have a
temperature rise, if it’s a problem in one area, it’s beneficial
in another area. But sea level is the real “bad guy,” and therefore
they have talked very much about it. But the real thing is,
that it doesn’t exist in observational data, only in computer
modeling.
…
Where is ice melting? Some Alpine glaciers
are melting, others are advancing. Antarctic ice is certainly
not melting; all the Antarctic records show expansion
of ice. Greenland is the dark horse here for sure; the Arctic
may be melting, but it doesn’t matter, because they’re already
floating, and it has no effect. A glacier like Kilimanjaro,
which is important, on the Equator, is only melting because
of deforestation. At the foot of the Kilimanjaro, there was a
rain forest; from the rain forest came moisture, from that
came snow, and snow became ice. Now, they have cut down
the rain forest, and instead of moisture, there comes heat;
heat melts the ice, and there’s no more snow to generate the
ice. So it’s a simple thing, but has nothing to do with temperature.
It’s the misbehavior of the people around the mountain.
So again, it’s like Tuvalu: We should say this deforestation,
that’s the thing. But instead they say, “No, no, it’s the
global warming!

The only thing that remains to worry about is the fact, that many now may think that “if there is no manmade global warming, then there is no problem”. But climate change is real and much of it is manmade! It’s not caused by CO2, but by deforestation through overexploitation and a lack of re-afforestation. Please read my recent posts for further illustration. The probably biggest threat humanity faces is water scarcity! No water – no Food! It’s that simple. Fortunately many of the emerging countries (like India) are becoming increasingly aware of this fact (through experience) and have started massive reforestation programmes. But much more needs to be done and on an international level. Existing forests need to be protected and new forests need to be grown. There is ample space in the deserts and on deserted wastelands of this earth to plant trees.

Useful Links:

The Treenitiative

UNEP’s Billion Tree Campaign

Article: “Why the West should put money in the trees” BBC News, published on September 8th, 2008

Watch the movie HOME by Yann Arthus-Bertrand (of course you may generously and safely ignore the bend towards IPCC’s demonisation of CO2 – the movie still gives a good overview of our REAL problems).

The world goes electric with wind- and solarpower from huge production sites somewhere in the desert or offshore. America is on the search for private enterprises as investing contractors for their future smart electricity grid, just when GMs Chevrolet Volt is about to be released to the road by 2010; the British contemplate fundraising through issuance of carbon bonds to the public for their fancied offshore windfarms and the German Government puts €170 mllions into research for developing their own batteries for the new generation of electric cars, of which one million are expected to cruise on Germany’s roads by 2020. “It is important that we couple a hopefully decreasing dependency on oil imports with not suddenly becoming dependent on battery imports,” said the German Economy Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg.

“Energy independence” is an argument often used by the political advocates of the new green deal. But then the vision of Desertec’s massive solar and wind power plant in the North African and Middle Eastern desert with connecting wires to the point of use in central Europe seems to violate just this idea. There exists a considerable vulnerability of transcontinental cables, poles and wires to blackmail or sabotage – it would not really take much to effectively switch off the lights on Europe’s bedside tables…

Neither should we cherish an illusion of a soon to come carbon free world, as of course as long as there is a drop of oil to be pumped and sold, it will be fed into the present system – probably at rapidly increasing prices – nobody will want to give away something for free. Therefore the talk is about cutting emissions, capitalizing emissions and trading emissions – and not about abolishing bad practice. “50% – 85% by 2050″ is the latest bargain that the Prince of Wales proposes to the world leaders on the Copenhagen Summit – he therefore has enlisted the help of 500 leading international companies from more than 50 countries. The bill will have to be settled by the consumers and by the nations that cannot afford the exorbitant investments in order to go green – the developing countries. “Take it from the poor and give it to the rich” is obviously a rule that will persist and not undergo change in the wake of establishing the new (refurbished) green (with pink glasses) deal (steal). Of course the rich nations and their energy corporations will generously extend their help to destitute nations in building the necessary infrastructure – just like an empathetic vampire will offer you gladly to check your pulse.

There is quite a haste to get all the treaties and legislations aligned (somehow reminds of the push during US Senate bailout negotiations). No wonder as even the Prince of Wales insists that after 84 months the atmospheric carbon levels will reach the height of irreversible damage – the point of no return (hope he did the math and checked the consistency with his a.m. proposal)! Everyone seems to agree: we need to cut emissions, we need green energy, we need jobs, we need markets, we need investing capital …We need to close the loop: investments will create jobs, jobs will create income; income will allow to consume what is produced. This time though it’s ‘low carb’ consumerism that will make everyone happy – especially the energy giants that have succesfully managed to remain BIG (monopolistic) and at the same time exchange their dirty fossil for a clean electric cash cow.

Unfortunately this beautiful vivid dream is slightly clouded by certain circumstances that lie outside the control of the vision impaired visionaries of wired power: first there is some kind of internal competition going on between the oilies and the nukies: the nuclear industry wants its share of the cake and insists that – apart from the waste problem that still needs solving – nuclear power is a safe, sustainable and green source of energy and should be promoted along with wind and solar schemes. Their strong lobby is not likely to give in easily in setting up the legal frameworks and distribution models unless they are appropriately allowing for increased future nuclear power generation. Secondly there is the big question mark associated with the provenience of funds for financing the whole green new deal: unfortunately much of the cash needed has just evaporated recently and it is highly unlikely that private bodies will go after novel, unproven and risky ventures with their remaining assets. Especially Britains envisioned model of financing their investments in the amount of “tens of billions of Pounds” through issuance of public bonds will have to pass the reality check. The UK government will have to prove their trustworthiness in handling public money after the recent turmoil over wasted taxpayers money. The third major obstacle to be overcome is more of a technical nature: While it is feasible to produce batteries and cars with electric motors it is not absolutely clear, how to bring the power from the wall socket to the car. If you have a house with an own parking lot or a garage you will just need an extension cord. But what if you happen to park somewhere in the street? (And how about aircrafts – are they going to be electric too?)

How sincere is this entire plan, how realistic is this plan, and – how fast can this plan be implemented and show results? Will this plan save our climate, our planet and our selves? I fear not. Although it undeniably is a very creative (‘clever’ would be the appropriate term) scheme, it still seems slightly out of touch with reality. And this is the dangerous thing about it. I am not at all opposed to change and new inventive strategies to make this world a better place. I am not even opposed to measure carbon emissions as a means to monitor and sanction pollution – but it should be carbon MONOXIDE (next to sulfur and nitrogen compounds and other toxic fumes) in order to get a true picture of manmade pollution (which by the way does not only consist of air pollution – think about the dumping of toxic wastes into the oceans or the contamination of soil with all kind of poisonous chemicals). And the measures to go green and tune into the rythms of nature should not stop there. This is just the beginning: if humanity (including the economic, political, scientific and environmental experts) is truly interested in safeguarding the planet and its inhabiting species – ours included – then there is much much more to do than to talk, patch, offset, cap and trade. We need to honestly assess our present situation on a profound level, diagnose and admit systemic weaknesses and behavioral failures, determine suitable remedies and solutions and then act on the base of these findings. In order to do so, we might need to let go of selfish economic interests and allocate resources to an independent scientific body that deserves this designation. Then we will need to open up towards novel ideas and approaches irrespective of the cost (the loss) for established (mal)practice. And finally we will need to opt for best practice, cooperation and solidarity to rebuild a truly sustainable world which operates in harmony with nature and aims at the common welfare of the entire human race.

Very simple, isn’t it?