Category: Articles

Revealed: the electric BMW

admin /26 December, 2009

Revealed: the electric BMW

JEZ SPINKS

December 18, 2009

BMW Concept ActiveE Click for more photos

 

  • 160km range, rear-wheel drive, no fuel, no emissions. Meet BMW’s first all-electric car.

BMW has moved another step closer to its first plug-in production car.

The Concept ActiveE will debut at January’s Detroit motor show, showcasing technology that’s being developed for the German car maker’s new range of electric city cars due before 2015.

The ActiveE follows the Mini E as part of BMW’s ‘Project i’ zero-emissions program. It’s based on a 1-Series Coupe but ditches the internal combustion engine and fuel tank for a twin battery pack and electric motor capable of powering the car for up to 160km.

Copenhagen hands Kevin Rudd an emissions trading scheme dilemma

admin /20 December, 2009

Copenhagen hands Kevin Rudd an emissions trading scheme dilemma Lenore Taylor and Sid Maher From: The Australian December 21, 2009 12:00AM   THE Rudd government faces a dramatically more difficult task in selling its emissions trading scheme as a result of the weak result from the Copenhagen conference, which has delayed critical decisions on national Continue Reading →

Rich and poor countries blame each other for failure of Copenhagen deal

admin /20 December, 2009

Rich and poor countries blame each other for failure of Copenhagen deal

Wealthy nations accused of bullying tactics to get developing countries to sign ‘death warrant’

COP15 Bolivian President Morales at a press conference at the Bella Center in Copenhagen

Bolivian President Evo Morales said the Copenhagen deal was a failure because of the ‘lack of political will by a small group of countries led by the US’ Photograph: Bob Strong/Reuters

The blame game over the failure of the Copenhagen climate talks started last night with countries accusing each other of a complete lack of willingness to compromise.

 

The G77 group of 130 developing nations blamed Obama for “locking the poor into permanent poverty by refusing to reduce US emissions further.”

This is bigger than climate change. It is a battle to redefine humanity

admin /15 December, 2009

This is bigger than climate change. It is a battle to redefine humanity

It’s hard for a species used to ever-expanding frontiers, but survival depends on accepting we live within limits

This is the moment at which we turn and face ourselves. Here, in the plastic corridors and crowded stalls, among impenetrable texts and withering procedures, humankind decides what it is and what it will become. It chooses whether to continue living as it has done, until it must make a wasteland of its home, or to stop and redefine itself. This is about much more than climate change. This is about us.

The meeting at Copenhagen confronts us with our primal tragedy. We are the universal ape, equipped with the ingenuity and aggression to bring down prey much larger than itself, break into new lands, roar its defiance of natural constraints. Now we find ourselves hedged in by the consequences of our nature, living meekly on this crowded planet for fear of provoking or damaging others. We have the hearts of lions and live the lives of clerks.

Climate justice: should the unborn have ltgal rights

admin /13 December, 2009

Climate justice: should the unborn have legal rights? Andrew Hickman 8th December, 2009 The biggest victims of climate change have no voice – in fact they are not even born yet – but the argument for giving them legal rights is not so far fetched In 1990, a young lawyer in the Philippines launched an Continue Reading →

A 480 Pound train ticket to Copenhagen makes it hard to care about the climate

admin /12 December, 2009

A £480 train ticket to Copenhagen makes it hard to care about the climate

Cheap flights allow people to pursue extravagant lifestyles at little cost to themselves, but at great cost to the world

St Pancras station, London

St Pancras station, London – the start to a costly, but greener, journey to Copenhagen. Photograph: Lewis Whyld/PA

You can spot the problem long before you get to Copenhagen. I’m sitting in St Pancras station about to start a journey for which I have paid – deep breath – £480.

That’s for a standard return journey from London to Copenhagen, with a bed in a six-berth compartment. It’s not the most expensive ticket. I booked it over a month ago, which means I haven’t had to re-mortgage my house (and I’m splitting the cost of the ticket 50:50 with the Guardian, for whom I’ll be blogging most days).

I could have got there by plane for £18.

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