Lotus Has a Real GEM

Lotus makes some of the best looking, fast and fun to drive green cars. Some of it’s panels are made from recyclable hemp, and one model – the Exige 270E is a real GEM – meaning it can run on Gasoline, Ethanol or Methanol. Their engineers designed it “to demonstrate how straightforward it can be to develop high performance carbon neutral vehicles using sustainable liquid fuels.”

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Fracking Pollutes Water …

Fracking pollutes water, makes it unusable and will eventually make it more expensive.? On the positive side, fracking for natural gas gives the US plenty of energy and creates jobs.

But using renewable energy sources has all the same benefits, but none of the environmental and health issues.

It is a fact that “The byproducts of fracking are far worse than the relatively low cost of natural gas.”

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Petroleum Perils

Petroleum Perils Royal Dutch Shell rig aground in the Arctic

The perils of extracting petroleum and fossil fuels are well documented. Clearly, drilling in the arctic or offshore is difficult, expensive and dangerous. A spill is hard to contain and virtually impossible to clean up. Spills from 20 years ago like the Exxon Valdez in Alaska to recent ones caused by British Petroleum in the Caspian Sea and the Gulf of Mexico are testament to their devastating and long lasting effects. Greenpeace has “… identified oil drilling in Arctic waters as one of the biggest climate threats being ignored by the world’s governments.”

Every year, according to Greenpeace, about 30 million barrels of oil products leak from wells and pipelines in Russia. An estimated four million barrels of that, roughly the size of BP’s Gulf of Mexico spill, flows straight into the Arctic Ocean through tributaries. !

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A Cleaner Community

We can’t build a strong clean community on a weak foundation!
Over the past several years, oil companies have taken advantage of smaller, less resilient communities desperate for work. When large corporations purchase land intending to mine for oil or natural gas, the result is both a breakdown of community as well as a reliance on the oil company to maintain their own economy.

Rural communities are promised jobs that provide livable wages and an overall higher standard of living. However, this comes at the expense of the community member’s physical health. Uranium, thorium, radium and a whole host of other toxic and radioactive substances are often found at drilling sites and remain in the soil for an indefinite amount of time. (Environmental Protection Agency)

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Europe Using Bio-DME

Volvo in Sweden has successfully tested using Bio-Dimethyl Ether (Bio-DME) in a small truck fleet.

Lars Mårtensson, environmental director at Volvo Trucks has said

We have shown that it’s possible to take an idea from the laboratory to full-scale operation and we have also successfully spread this knowledge all over the world. There is now a clear-cut interest from countries including China, Russia and the USA and they are markets with huge potential…”

…. According to the calculations, bio-DME could replace up to 50 per cent of the diesel that is currently being consumed by commercial vehicles in Europe within the next 20 years. We have a chance to make a fantastic contribution to help the environment…

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