greenswitch – climate change and cleantech solutions

new in [solar]: Dye solar cells — more lessons from nature learned

Jo’burg memo: Fairness in a Fragile World

Sixteen authors, eminent activists, politicians, intellectuals, and managers from across the world joined forces to produce a Memorandum for the World Summit and to contribute to the debate on both the desired outcomes of the Summit and the critical path for the sustainable development agenda in the next decade. The Memorandum, published by the Heinrich Boell Foundation, is now available online. download here.



and here’s an US article/comment on this memo, of course in ‘black and white’: German Socialists Urge Abolition of American Way of Life.” Give up baseball, jazz, hot dogs and grease foods? What, are they nuts?

more links to Johannesburg Summit:

Heinrich Boell Foundation Jo’burg site

UN Official Jo’burg site

Jo’burg Summit 2002

IISD Earth Summit Portal

Volkswagen: 1 Liter car evaporates in the clouds

Looks like Volkswagen is backpedaling from it’s ambitious plan to build a “1 Liter car” — yeah, that’s right, 235 mpg! Costs for research and technology are going to be too high; thus, price tags may be also too high for cost conscious car buyers, a VW spokesperson said. Volkswagen stopped a 2 Liter car plans in 1999 pretty much for the same reasons: Who wants to buy a 30.000 US Dollar expensive tiny sardine container? But Volkswagen’s 3 Liter car (79 mpg), the LUPO, is quite successful in Germany. I’ve seen it many times on Germany’s street, kinda cute cars…they should sell them in the US and Canada as well…give’em a choice and they may switch from their stinky old chevy ships to a small, fancy-schmancy European car with funny looking headlights.

8 liter/100km (29 mpg) cars actually use 11 l/100km (21 mpg)

The Wuppertal Institute came up with this calculation. The reason for a higher than advertise economy are simply all electrical devices: 1 liter/100 km for climate controls, 0.4 l/100km loss due to cooling liquid usage, 1,2 l/100km loss in economy due to non economical driving style and another 0.4l/100km other emissions. Detailed article in German language in the national daily newspaper ‘Süddeutsche Zeitung’.

FTD - Volkswagen: Begeisterung für Ein-Liter-Auto schwindet Ein Problem beim Spritspar-Fahrzeug ist der Preis, denn Entwicklung und Technik sind sehr aufwendig. Zwar handele es sich bei dem geplanten Modell um einen Kleinwagen – dies bedeute aber nicht, dass auch der Preis klein sein werde, sagte Hoffmann. Im vergangenen Jahr hatte der Konzern noch angekündigt, das Ein-Liter-Auto werde erheblich günstiger sein als der Drei-Liter-Lupo.

[Friday afternoon excursion]: What is real? Short flash movie, exploring the perennial questions, What Is reality? What (or Who) Are You? What Do We Want? and Why Do We Still Suffer? (by Peter Russell/Spirit of now)

new in [fuel cells]: new developments in fuel cell technology/design in laptops

Back on the block — Vancouver, BC

Finally, I am settled in Vancouver.

Here are two goodies:

- A statistical source-book on sustainability (Europe statistics, 63 social, economic, environmental and institutional indicators), published by EuroStat. highly useful resource.

- Tomorrow’s markets — Global trends and their implications for business — a new UNEP report.

more to come soon, mainly on cutting edge solar technology..