Ten Funniest Climate Change Videos Ever (that I’ve seen and can remember)

CAREFULLY plucked like dew-covered orchids from the garden of YouTube, I hereby present the ten funniest videos about climate change which have ever been made, ever, by anyone, anywhere, ever – or at least of those I’ve seen. Which isn’t many.

But anyway, I should say there’s swearing and stuff, so best turn the sound down. I think the phrase is “Not Suitable For Work” which generally means it’s suitable for sharing at work.

1. Worrying research from the coal lobby. Wind turbines could blow the earth off its orbit. The Onion discusses.

2 British comedian Sean Lock on mopping up oil spills with a seal pup and feeling generally helpless. Continue reading “Ten Funniest Climate Change Videos Ever (that I’ve seen and can remember)”

Cycling Super Duper Highways

I’M no commuter cyclist, but then I don’t commute.

On the rare occasion I do need to get into my city of choice (Brisbane) I’ll generally take the train or the bus. Taking the bike would mean about 12 kilometers along with a disconnected network of paths through parks and along roads or a more direct 10-kilometre route along the main road choked with cars, buses, and lorries. I wouldn’t deny though that riding bike is fun, thrilling and at the same time can help burn calories. It could be all the more exciting riding on gravel e bikes as you do not need to stress much for paddling.

However, I prefer my legs and head unsmashed, although I do know that people take this route daily and arrive unbroken. Many people prefer dirt bikes to go on uneven roads as such bikes tend to have a lot of auto controls that prevent them from crashing or falling. Well, a lot of people might not be able to buy such bikes as they can be costly. Alternatively, they can head over to reseller portals like ZeCycles (https://www.zecycles.com) where they can buy well-maintained dirt bikes at a cheaper price.

For every 100 journeys made in southeast Queensland each day, just a smidgen over one of them will be taken on a bike. Yet the Queensland Government wants to push this figure up to nine by the year 2031.

Now assuming that oil prices don’t rise to the point where people are forced to reach for the handlebars out of necessity (which might happen), how will the Government and local councils get all of those bums out of air-conditioned over-sized steel boxes on traffic-clogged roads and onto rubber-clad cycling seats?

Research by traffic planner Rachel Smith, who I spoke to recently for a story in BMAG, suggests one of the main reasons that more people don’t switch to bikes is because they don’t feel safe sharing the road with cars, scooters or motorbikes and their itinerant unpredictable riders and drivers.

Funnily enough, painting a white line down a road and stencilling a picture of a bike on the asphalt doesn’t appear to give citizens much re-assurance that it will prevent them from being squished by something bigger and heavier than they are. Yet this appears to be the preferred method (the painting, not the squishing).

Smith went off around the world on a research scholarship to visit more than 20 cities that have dedicated cycle routes. Not paths that take you on the most circuitous route possible to uninhabited corners of cities, but cycle ways that lead people straight to where all the action is or, alternatively, where they work. Smith told me

At the moment we build skinny unprotected on-road cycle lanes, often less than half a metre wide and then stand back and wonder why ‘normal’ people don’t cycle.

Smith returned from places like Bogota, Copenhagen and Malmo with a big idea. Cycling Super Highways – routes several metres wide , separate from traffic and all… well… super.

But Smith is no lone nutty voice from some cycling utopia. Brisbane’s CBD Bicycle User Group want one linking northern suburbs to the city. Bicycle Queensland are lobbying for a handful of them too.

And before everyone get’s their bike chains in a knot at the preposterousnous of actually giving up valuable city real estate to something other than a motor vehicle, it’s worth understanding a couple of things.

The first is that there are cities around the world which have been bold enough and visionary enough to build things like this. The other is that, even now in Copenhagen, 18 local authorities are collaborating to build a network of commuter routes for bikes.

As Dr Matthew Burke at Griffith University’s Urban Research Programme said to me, when it comes to getting people on bikes we need to take a philosophy from Kevin Costner (well.. who else?) in that film Field of Dreams.

It’s a case of, if you build them… cycle routes… then they’ll come.

Read a bit more about Rachel Smith’s big idea for bikes here. See her report here.

Feature – Electric cars are coming and this time they mean it.

YEH I know, you’ve heard it all before.

Electric cars are coming to take over the world, robbing petrol-heads everywhere of their fossil fuel-loving internal combustion engines with all that grrrrrr and CO2.

Well it seems that while many finally dismissed the claims of EV enthusiasts as little more than science fiction, the car companies, local governments, and savvy entrepreneurs have been getting on with the job and they may come up with something spectacular. The green outlook of these vehicles that utilize lithium-ion batteries from companies such as Smartpropel, makes them more attractive. The look and form of these vehicles could play a major role in the automobile market. However, with the application of new dyeing tools in the auto sector, these vehicles could appeal to the masses. Methods such as industrial finishing or powder coating, which is done in the ‘Powder Coating Booths‘ of the manufacturing unit, may help in giving a modern and futuristic look.

Besides their futuristic look, electric cars often feature a lot of advanced technologies, giving them an advantage over conventional vehicles. Advanced Driver Assistance Systems, for example, is a highly advanced technology that has the capability to automate the driving processes of EVs to a certain degree through features like cruise control, collision warning, and lane-keeping assistance. ADAS tech of this type is usually high-performing since artificial intelligence and ADAS calibration systems are used to create them. Electric cars also have other futuristic technology, similar to ADAS.

Looks aside, even the very makeup of an electronic vehicle has seen massive improvements thanks to better design and efficient manufacturing advancements seen in the CNC machining and turbomachinery sector. By moving towards auto-controlled machining and lathing models (read this article: Concepts NREC Signs Global Machine Tool Partnership with Hermle to get a better picture), secondary parts suppliers are able to offer a gamut of metal die castings specifically fabricated for EV components like housing for the battery, ACDC converter, heat sink and others to vehicle manufacturers.

Keep reading for a feature I’ve just had published in Brisbane’s bmag looking at what seems to me to be the inevitable rise of the electric car. Not even a jobsworth wheel clamper can stop the revolution now.

The Buzz about electric cars

Mark down 2010 on your driveway or scratch it on your garage wall as a reminder of the year when the wheel clamps and handbrake were finally released on the electric car.

For more than a century, the cleaner and greener electric vehicle (EV) has been held back thanks to a plentiful supply of liquid fossil fuel. But as cheap oil runs out and evidence mounts of the damage to the planet of extracting and burning fossil fuels, the long-time “concept vehicle” is stepping out of the sci-fi movie and on to a road near you. Of course, this means people around the world are looking for options to protect these new investments, be it through one sure insurance or other means.

Dozens of models of electric cars are going into mass production around the world, with some already being sold. And, if 2010 is the year the electric car industry finally got going, then July could be credited as the month when Queensland started to take them seriously.

“You now have electric vehicles popping up everywhere,” says Brisbane-based clean technology consultant Philippe Reboul. “It is getting serious.”

Continue reading “Feature – Electric cars are coming and this time they mean it.”