Climate Cities
All Stories
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Air Force Une
New car powered by compressed air to hit France There are some nifty-sounding cars in the making these days. The latest — to be introduced in France, where production will begin next year — is the Air Car, a car that runs on, uh, air. Well, and electricity too. You plug it in at home, […]
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Cheese-Eating Efficiency Monkeys
France has made big strides in energy efficiency After the global oil crises of the 1970s, both the U.S. and France took steps to increase energy efficiency and reduce their vulnerability to oil price fluctuations. Unlike the U.S., however, France stuck with them. Since 1973, U.S. oil use has risen by 16 percent, while France’s […]
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Take Two Tickets to the City and Call Me in the Morning
Suburban sprawl is bad for your health Not only is suburban sprawl bad for the environment — encouraging car use and overly large, energy-inefficient homes, paving paradise to put up a parking lot, etc. — but it’s bad for the folks who live there as well, according to a new study to be published in […]
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If I Were Dictator … Oh, Wait, I Am!
China establishes its first-ever fuel-efficiency standards for cars Attempting to combat its growing dependence on oil imports, China is set to establish fuel-efficiency standards for cars, SUVs, and vans for the first time. The standards are identical to those in a draft circulated last November, about which the auto industry strenuously complained, claiming they were […]
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When You Wish Upon a Car
Car-Free Day: A good idea, but not without its difficulties Yesterday was Car-Free Day. Couldn’t you tell? Some 1,500 municipalities, the vast majority in Europe, participated, but the idea hasn’t really caught on in the U.S., outside of a few scattered cities. Reading the European news does not give one great hope that it ever […]
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Umbra on whether to leave the engine running
Dear Umbra, I have a question that has been nagging me for a while, and I would really like to have it answered once and for all. You see, I deliver pizzas for a living right now, and so I make many frequent stops and starts at people’s houses during a shift. I always turn […]
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The Wicked Switch
Automakers Rapped for Pollution From Mercury Switches With recent revelations that just about all freshwater fish in the U.S. are contaminated with mercury, concern over the heavy-metal pollutant has regulators carefully examining every source. The fourth largest, as it happens, is automobiles, specifically the mercury switches in auto lights and brakes. Last year a record […]
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Sunflower Power
Scientists Create Hydrogen Fuel from Sunflower Oil British scientists have discovered a way to power cars with sunflower oil. While biodiesel cars that directly burn cooking oil are fairly common, researcher Valerie Dupont and her colleagues have something else in mind, as they reported this week at an American Chemical Society conference. They’ve figured out […]
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The Problem, My Friend, Is Blowin’ in the Wind
Blowing Desert Dust Is Growing Environmental Problem Dust blowing up from the Sahara Desert has increased tenfold in the last 50 years and represents a growing environmental threat, warned Oxford geography professor Andrew Goudie today. And SUVs are at least partly to blame. The replacement of camels with four-wheel-drive vehicles such as Toyota Land Cruisers […]
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Mort Utility Vehicles
SUV Occupants More Likely to Die in Accidents You surely already know that SUVs pollute the air, contribute to global warming, boost demand for oil, and shackle our security and economic fate to volatile, politically regressive Middle Eastern states. You might even know that SUVs raise the total number of traffic fatalities and squash drivers […]
