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Pledge to make UK landings and take-offs more fuel efficient
Dan Milmo, Guardian
The way aircraft take off, fly and land in Britain will undergo a significant overhaul as part of plans to cut aviation emissions by 10% over the next decade.

The national air traffic controller, Nats, has pledged to reduce the amount of carbon dioxide generated in British airspace by 2020. Meeting the benchmark will require new approach paths for airports, greater cooperation with neighbouring air traffic regimes and shorter delays on airport taxi-ways. Nats expects its initiatives to reduce the amount of fuel needed each journey by 10%.
(17 January 2008)

Tiny Tata Nano, big threat
Editorial, Los Angeles Times
There's a good reason why chief U.N. climate scientist Rajendra Pachauri, who shared last year's Nobel Peace Prize with Al Gore, says he's "having nightmares" about India's newest automotive innovation. It's not because the Nano from Tata Motors, which was introduced last week, makes the boxiest hatchbacks from the '70s look sexy. It's not because the car lacks air conditioning in a country where the heat can be paralyzing, nor because its 2-cylinder engine can barely manage 60 mph. It's because the vehicle's tiny price tag -- about $2,500 -- will make car ownership possible for millions of Indians, which could well render the rest of the world's efforts to combat global warming moot.

Currently, only about 12 in 1,000 Indians have a car, according to the United Nations. In the United States, the ratio is 765 cars for every 1,000 people. What happens if, through a combination of its incredibly rapid economic growth and innovations like the Nano, India's car-ownership ratio hits that of the U.S.? That would put 864 million cars on India's roads, more than 3 1/2 times the number in the U.S. It wouldn't happen for several decades, if ever, but the same phenomenon is occurring in China, which has an even bigger population. The International Energy Agency estimates that the number of cars in China will increase sevenfold, to 270 million, by 2030.That's a scary prospect. Light-duty vehicles account for about 10% of global carbon emissions, and that number is going to rise quickly as more Indians and Chinese get behind the wheel.

Indians, of course, have every right to enjoy the newfound freedom and status that comes with owning a car. There is nothing the world's environmental community can or should do to interfere with the rollout of the Nano. Yet it does point up the urgency of developing technological alternatives to the internal combustion engine and the burning of fossil fuels.
(18 January 2008)
I'm not sure why the LA Times thinks that the Indians - or anyone for that matter - has "every right to enjoy the newfound freedom and status that comes with owning a car." Where is it written? Perhaps as the glaciers in the Himalayas melt, bringing droughts and floods, there may be a re-think of the wonders of car ownership.

The Christian Science Monitor has an uncharacteristically ignorant article waxing enthusiastic about the Nano: Could the 'Nano' launch a revolution on India's roads?. It says that the car will be "affordable for some of India's poorer people" - confusing the relatively small middle class who can afford the car, with the vastly larger section of the population who will suffer as a result of it. -BA

Israel launches electric-car program
Michael Kanellos, Greem Tech Blog via CNET News
Renault-Nissan, the government of Israel, and an electric charging station start-up founded by Shai Agassi are mounting an effort to make electric cars part of ordinary life in Israel in the next decade.

Project Better Place, Agassi's organization, will try to build 500,000 electric service stations in the country, according to the organization. At these stations, attendants will swap out depleted batteries and put in fully charged ones. This saves the several hours typically required to charge a lithium-ion battery pack made for cars. (You can also charge the batteries at home.) Renault-Nissan, meanwhile, will ship electric cars to the country in three years or so. Ultimately, the company hopes to ship 10,000 to 20,000 a year.
(21 January 2008)