Sunday, May 3, 2009

Two Billion Cars


Or, as the subtitle rather optimistically puts it, "Driving Towards Sustainability". Sounds a bit like tree-felling towards biodiversity. Well, there are already more than 1bn cars on the planet, and these authors, energy and transport mavens, see an inevitable rise (largely driven by China and India) to 2bn in a few decades. How to minimise their impact on the climate? The twin prongs of a solution are emerging alternative-transportation developments (such as Bus Rapid Transit, platoons of buses in dedicated lanes); and alternative fuel sources for cars, a field distorted in the US by subsidies for one of the worst options, corn ethanol.

Read Ethanol comments about Sugarcane (Ethanol without subsidies).

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Australia urged to swap diesel for electric buses as fuel costs soar. "Electric buses are just 1% of the Australian fleet compared with 80% in urban China, a quarter in the Netherlands and 12% in the UK"

  Electric buses charge at the Brookvale depot in Sydney. Australia’s bus fleet is dependent on diesel but most states and territories hav...