On a recent visit to San Francisco I was amazed at the number of Toyota Priuses on the road. I don’t think at any one time I could look in any direction on the highway or on city streets and not see one. It’s no wonder that the American auto market has been eclipsed by foreign auto makers, not the least of which is Toyota, riding the success wave of their gas-electric hybrid, the Prius.
The term hybrid is one of the hottest buzz words to enter the English lexicon. In our global economy and an ever-growing awareness of the limitations of our resources, people everywhere are concerned about how we can maintain our lifestyles into the future. There is a plethora of curiosity, enthusiasm and confusion surrounding this term as we face high gas prices and a bleak forecast for our natural environment. Our lifestyles are being threatened, and so people all over the world look to the hybrid car as a potential solution, allowing us to continue speeding across our lands and living our lives of convenience. With all these concerns riding on the success of new technology, it is no wonder that people want to know, in simple terms, how do hybrid cars work…
Support Our Planet Earth in 2009 and Beyond. Earth Day is a time for each and every one of us to stop and reflect on our planet, and feel thankful for everything that we’ve been given. After all, without Earth, there wouldn’t be much of us…
All hybrid cars share at least three common factors. In fact, all three capabilities must be present in order for the vehicle to be classified as hybrid. These three steps include: Regenerative braking, idle-off capability and power assist. These steps are explained below in more detail. Read on to learn more about what makes a car a hybrid
New technology is prone to being a source of confusion simply because few people know all the facts, understand the technology, and get caught up in exaggerated stories generated by peoples’ natural impulsive tendency to allow fantasies to fill in the blanks. Following are four common myths surrounding hybrid cars. We’ll see which ones are fact, and which ones are fiction…
A climate refugee is someone who has been displaced geographically as a result of climate change. In other words, they were unable to stay in their homes due to an impending change in the surrounding climate – be that from fire, storm, flooding, earthquake, etc. that caused them to move from their homes…
To help our readers understand just how important the Kyoto Protocol is to our planet and our future generations, we’re going to provide a summary of the Kyoto Protocol.
Sounds like an oxymoron doesn’t it? Usually when the words environmental and gas station or used in the same sentence, they negate each other. In this case, however, we are looking to find a gas station that currently does the least environmental harm. In other words, a lesser of evils…
On March 11th, 2011 the East Coast of Honshu Japan was rocked by an earthquake that measured in at a magnitude of 9.0. This Earth shattering quake was just the beginning of things to come for Japan as a series of tragic events would soon begin to unfold as a result of the initial quake. As Japanese citizens struggled to overcome the damage that the incredible quake caused there was little time for rescue efforts to unfold as a tsunami, spawned by the giant earthquake rolled across the shorelines bringing with it waves of immense proportions. As the tsunami swallowed up the East Coast of Japan, leaving in its wake nothing but death and destruction, those who were fortunate enough to make it out alive held on for dear life as Japan launched rescue efforts. The overall devastation caused by the combination of the record breaking quake and the following tsunami would be enough to cause any number of people to turn tail and run; however, the Japanese have done no such thing and they continue to diligently work towards saving their country from any further devastation.
As if the sheer devastation caused by the March 11, 2011 earthquake and following tsunami weren’t enough, the country of Japan is now facing the potential of nuclear disaster. The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant was built to stand up to an earthquake of major magnitudes, quakes that hit the world at a rate of eighteen per year. However, the estimation of a 7.9 magnitude quake being the largest to hit the Fukushima nuclear power plant did not take into account the 33 foot tsunami that was to follow the 9.0 magnitude quake hit on March 11, 2011…
