Green News Blog 16 May 08
Added On: 22/05/2008
2 RatingsEco Cars Shortage
Soaring fuel costs have led to record waiting lists for eco-friendly cars. Volkswagen, Honda and Toyota have all warned of long waiting lists, with a wait of up to 9 months for the new VW Polo Bluemotion.
Eco cars are now more difficult to get hold of than many performance cars, but our question is this... When will we start to see eco cars with genuine sports performance?
Source from The Sun Newspaper, UK
Gadgets Are Binned
Most britons bin broken electrical goods without trying to fix them, according to a poll from Legal & General, who asked 4000 adults. Nine in ten admitted they immediately throw them away. Half would just replace a dodgy MP3 or DVD player.
People aged between 25 & 34 were the worst, whilst up to 12% said they would buy a new item if they had a blown fuse!
Where do they get the cash from! Fixing a fuse isn't rocket science, in fact it's more work to go and buy a new item than change the fuse! Electrical product waste is an ever-expanding issue, and the easy availability of cheap electronic goods isn't helping. But consumers shouldn't be punished for the low quality of the cheaper products, we think better manufacturing quality control checks should be implemented.
We recommend buying higher quality electrical goods, as their lifespan will be greater, saving you money in the long term.
Source from The Sun Newspaper, UK
Orangutan Photographed Fishing
Learning by example, as scientists have long known, is one of the many human-like skills that belong to one of our closest living cousins. For the first time, a photographer has captured an orangutan mimicking human behaviour by attempting to hunt with a spear.
The animal can be seen lunging forcefully at the water with a well-proportioned tree branch, in the hope of finding a fish flailing on the other end of it. Later, unable to catch one outright, the resourceful creature used the stick to dislodge a fish from a fisherman's net, before sitting down on the banks of the Gohong River, Borneo, to devour its catch.
Got to love the orangutan, they'll be driving cars and smoking cigarettes next...
Source from The Independent Newspaper, UK
UK's Top Eco Cars Gimmicks?
Eco cars claiming to help the environment release over 50% more than the manufacturers claim, a test by the UK magazine Auto Express has found.
Three models performed so poorly that the magazine has called them gimmicks. The worst offender, the Honda Civic Hybrid, had such a weak electric motor that 171g per kilometre was found to be produced, instead of Honda's claim of 102g per km, 56% more!
Other cars such as the Ford Focus ECOnetic, the Mini Cooper Clubman D and the VW BlueMotion also failed to match either their claimed CO2 output or their fuel economy, but they were found to have improved fuel economies, and were proclaimed to be green cars by the mag.
So it's probably best to check the facts before buying a new green car, as it seems that certain car companies may be trying to use the green issue as a selling point, without actually providing a product that is effective in reducing CO2 production and improving fuel efficiency.
Source from Auto Express Magazine, UK.
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