New Cars Rombengan 2011 - 2020

While we’re still waiting for Greenpeace’s latest edition of its guide to greener electronics, let’s recap October 2010 edition.

Nokia ranked first among 18 top manufacturers of personal computers, mobile phones, TVs and games consoles according to their policies on toxic chemicals, recycling and climate change. All its current mobile phone models are PVC free and Nokia’s scheduled releases are on track to be free of brominated compounds, chlorinated flame retardants and antimony trioxide.

Sony Ericsson, Philips, HP, Samsung, and Motorola are also praised by Greenpeace for their efforts against toxic chemicals.

Apple is ranked #9 because of its lack of information about its management of chemicals and its supply chain communications. Apple also continues to score poorly for the minimal information it provides about its future toxic chemical phase-out plans.

Toshiba, Microsoft and Nintendo get a red flag. Toshiba, on #16, backtracked on its commitment to bring to market new models of all its consumer electronics products free of PVC vinyl plastic and brominated flame retardants (BFRs) by 1 April 2010, its own timeline for meeting this commitment. Greenpeace accuses the Japanese company of misleading its customers by not admitting that it would not meet its public commitment until the timeline for that commitment had passed. It has failed to provide a new timeline, which means there is no longer a commitment to eliminate these harmful substances, Greenpeace says.

Microsoft also backtracked on its commitment to phase out BFRs and PVC by the end of 2010, having no products that are completely free from these compounds.

Nintendo remains in last place with the same score of 1.8 out of 10 that it got in the previous edition of Greenpeace’s guide to greener electronics. It continues to score zero on all e-waste criteria and although it has improved its information to customers about access to its take-back programme in the US and Canada, this was not enough to score points.

Nintendo scores points on energy criteria, for the energy efficiency of its low power AC adaptor for the Nintendo DSi, which meets the requirements for external power supplies in the Energy Star programme. It also retains a point on energy for disclosing carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from its own operations. However, it fails to score for its commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, due to a second year of increases, despite a commitment to cut CO2 emissions and other greenhouse gases by 2 percent over each previous year. Emissions in 2007 increased by 1.5 percent compared to 2006, following a rise of 6 percent in 2006, Greenpeace states.

The full ranking:
1 – Nokia
2 – Sony Ericsson
3 – Philips
4 – HP
5 – Samsung
6 – Motorola / Panasonic / Sony
9 – Apple
10 – Dell
11 – Sharp
12 – Acer
13 – Fujitsu
14 – LG / Lenovo
16 – Toshiba
17 – Microsoft
18 – Nintendo

Via EVPerspective / Los Angeles Times: Here's a video by LA Time's reporter Susan Carpenter on the equipment and costs involved with charging your electric car at home, using solar panels:

The regional government of the Azores Islands, Portugal, has announced it has bought two electric buses for 700,000 euros. The two buses will be used to test the potential of electric powered public transportation vehicles in the green volcanic archipelago, which consumed electricity is partly produced by geothermal energy.

According to the Açoriano Oriental newspaper, quoted by Mobi.e, the regional government bought a 30 to 36 seats bus with an estimated autonomy of 120 kms, and another 18 to 22 seats vehicle with an estimated autonomy of 100 kms.

Related: South Korea starts commercial operation of electric battery buses in Seoul

From the TreeHuger: "Sustainability is made of little changes to our lifestyle that don't cost us anything and can save the planet," said Stefania Prestigiacomo, Italian Environmental Minister, as she confirmed that a ban on non-biodegradable, single-use plastic bags will take effect on 1 January 2011, for all of Italy.

The plastics industry protests that the rules are not clear, that the abrupt transition will have negative repercussions on consumers, and that Italy has no reason to take the initiative as there is no ban at the European level. But their arguments seem weak in light of the fact that the ban, originally announced for January 2010, has already been delayed a year to give the industry time for transition.

Further arguments include the cost of biodegradable bags (4-5 times more), and the fact that biodegradable plastics cannot yet meet the technical specifications that the non-biodegradable plastics meet; read: the biodegradable bags rip even as consumers pack their purchases at the cash register. Perhaps any inadequacy of the single-use biodegradable bags will convince more Italians to reach for multi-use bags. In a survey last November, 73% of Italians reported that they would use alternatives to single-use, non-biodegradable plastic bags when shopping.

Read more...

Tweet this post From the New York Times: The worst of the explosions gutted the Deepwater Horizon stem to stern. Crew members were cut down by shrapnel, hurled across rooms and buried under smoking wreckage. Some were swallowed by fireballs that raced through the oil rig’s shattered interior. Dazed and battered survivors, half-naked and dripping in highly combustible gas, crawled inch by inch in pitch darkness, willing themselves to the lifeboat deck.

It was no better there.

That same explosion had ignited a firestorm that enveloped the rig’s derrick. Searing heat baked the lifeboat deck. Crew members, certain they were about to be cooked alive, scrambled into enclosed lifeboats for shelter, only to find them like smoke-filled ovens.

Men admired for their toughness wept. Several said their prayers and jumped into the oily seas 60 feet below. An overwhelmed young crew member, Andrea Fleytas, finally screamed what so many were thinking:

“We’re going to die!”

It has been eight months since the Macondo well erupted below the Deepwater Horizon, creating one of the worst environmental catastrophes in United States history. With government inquiries under way and billions of dollars in environmental fines at stake, most of the attention has focused on what caused the blowout. Investigators have dissected BP’s well design and Halliburton’s cementing work, uncovering problem after problem.

But this was a disaster with two distinct parts — first a blowout, then the destruction of the Horizon. The second part, which killed 11 people and injured dozens, has escaped intense scrutiny, as if it were an inevitable casualty of the blowout.

It was not.

Read more of this extensive piece by the New York Times, or watch the video below:

Tweet this post Honda has announced it is conducting real life tests on its network of solar powered plug-in charging stations in Japan's Saitama Prefecture.

The company is also developing smaller sized solar hydrogen stations for individual costumers that could fit in a garage.

Watch the video after the jump, from NTDTV: