Mean Green

In conjunction with the Earth Day celebration, MTV together with the “Pimp My Ride” crew will prove that going green can be cool especially with a little help from friendly California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. As part of the special Earth Day episode of MTV that will be aired on April 22 at 1 pm ET/PT, Governor Schwarzenegger will visit Xzibit, Mad Mike and the rest of “Pimp My Ride” crew at G.A.S. short for Galpin Auto Sports where they try to pimp a 65 Chevy Impala to give it a never before seen ecological alteration.

The main objective of the “Pimp My Ride” crew is to show that it is possible to combine power and eco-preservation, thanks to partners at Galpin, Imperium Renewables, General Motors and others sponsors. The Impala is going to be equipped with an 800 horsepower diesel engine that will run on biodiesel converting it into one ultra clean machine.

The special “Pimp My Ride” episode is going to be aired as part of the thinkMTV year long campaign with theme “Break the Addiction” which hopes to empower, engage, and educate the millions of young people to make smart, everyday choices that will help improve their lives and at the same reduce the impact of climate change and preserve the environment.

The episode will also be telecast on MTV2 and MTV Tr3s, and will appear on MTV as the kick-off of a “Pimp My Ride” Sneak Peek marathon featuring all new episodes of the MTV hit series starting at 1 pm ET/PT on April 22, Sunday.

For the special edition of “Pimp My Ride” fans will get to know Kristoffer from North Hollywood, CA who has more than his fair share of car trouble with his 1965 Chevy Impala. He will get the biggest surprise of his life once Xzibit pays him a visit and takes his car to G.A.S. for some ultimate ecological transformation. Beau together with Mad Mike and the rest of the G.A.S. team has put together the plan that will include installing a monster 800 horsepower diesel engine that will run on biodiesel.

Fans should never fail to watch the step by step transformation of the 1965 Impala plus they should also join Mad Mike as he visits the guys at Imperium Renewables to learn exactly how alternative fuels are produced and used. One of the highlights of the Impala transformation is the testing part on which it will be made to compete against a Lamborghini Gallardo in the ultimate test of power and performance.

Governor Schwarzenegger personally visits G.A.S. to help with the final touches and provide his own eco-ideas to the car. Once the transformation and testing are finished and after the Governor gives his blessing to the new eco-friendly Impala it will then be presented to Kristoffer who will definitely get jolted once he saw his new pimped ride.

Galpin Auto Sports, the garage of “Pimp My Ride”, takes going green to an all-new level and their dedication to protecting our planet dates back to 1979 when Galpin Motors began turning fleets of gasoline engine vehicles to run on methanol and opened the nation’s first dealers to sell Ford flexible fuel vehicles.

The world’s largest automaker and producer of quality Chevy truck parts and Chevy Accessories, General Motors have also helped with the restoration of the 1965 Chevy Impala. General Motors has supplied the Impala with the efficient and powerful Duramax diesel engine which is also found on the latest Chevrolet and GMC trucks. The Duramax diesel engine is one of the cleanest diesel engines ever produced.

General Motors has focused on reducing the environmental impact of its vehicles as well as promote energy diversity with the development of advanced fuel-saving technologies for the conventional vehicle which includes the use of biofuels like E85 ethanol and biodiesel as well as the development of electrically-driven vehicles like hybrids, fuel cells, and those that can be powered by lithium. The world’s largest automaker has also improved its auto parts including those of its Chevy truck part components to make even its trucks eco-friendly.

gaeus, technically a modified Toyota Prius is one of the first of its kind to run on a mixture of algae based fuel. The company spokespeople have said that the car gets about 150 miles per gallon. Algae could turn out to be the biofuel of the future.

The Algaeus was premiered in San Francisco, California with plans to eventually drive it across the country using only algae based fuel. Right now the ratio of algae in the tank is about five percent but even that is huge strides in the right direction toward an alternative fuel source without negative impact. The algae are supplied in the form of green crude from a company called Sapphire Energy.

In the future, there will be more algae powered vehicles; however for now the company will continue to make an increased amount of algae based jet fuel. The goal is a production of over two million liters of algae jet fuel in the next two years. In addition, it will continue to make algae based fuels for alternative cars and other vehicles as well.

Any move that can change the way that the country looks at fuel and fuel production should be considered to be positive, however, the algae based fuel may be in the distant future as there are other considerations to keep in mind with this and any other fuel source. How will it be transported, and how will it be stored once it gets to different locations for instance. Are there any side effects to the refining of the algae for fuel? Are there dangers to consider? Will the car be eventually all algae powered or will it continue to only use a percentage of this green crude? What is the power capability of a car being run on five percent algae? Every question that can be answered in the present will have a new one to be worked on in the future it seems.

If the Algaeus does make it across the country, (the trip was meant to be from California to New York) there will be millions of questions that are likely to arise. How well the questions can be answered will be important not only for this type of alternative fuels, but for all others as well. For some people, any failure in the alternative fuel market might be a failure across the board however one minded that might be.

We may praise them, we may criticize them…but it’s a fact that India’s eco-politics has had its share of successes and blunders on its way to where we stand now. Time to time political stands attracted bitter criticism on whether protection of the economy was in fact truly based on long-run comparative advantage, or whether it was determined by other, more political motives.

India’s political system has, on many occasions, been unable to grab the given opportunities either due to lack of knowledge or because of political motivation. In the early 1990s when firms like Motorola approached us for facilities to set up manufacturing operations in India, we declined. China welcomed them and the fruits of this association is evident today.

The need of the hour is reforms, the need of the hour is innovation. There is a difference between keeping an elephant and carrying an elephant on the shoulders.

I strongly believe that instead of subsidies and free wares we need to engage them in sectors like biofuels, bamboo cultivation and products, and medicinal plants. Each of these can engage millions. These are policies that will not hurt the economy and all the same provide them the much-needed regular flow of income. Similarly, projects that entail huge earthworks including gram sadak projects, the linking of rivers will be able to absorb millions who may be dislocated and at the same time unleash the country’s productive potential. They are the real social security that will take the nation’s economy to unscaled heights.

Political parties need to rise above political equations and vote-banks. We can’t defer reforms for the forthcoming elections.

Having said that however, politics is also not without economics. The government-run railways are running in profit, the navaratnas are running in profit, many other sectors too are. Why? I would say they have brought in place reforms and innovative ways to become profitable.

Recently when I was in Gujarat, I saw a new trend emerging there. With a view to attracting several overseas companies to set up base in the state and to provide job opportunities to locals, the State government has taken up an ambitious project called SCOPE (Society for Creation of Opportunity through Proficiency in English) to empower the masses to acquire basic communication skills. The government has understood and recognized the fact that manpower is its strongest area and for that they need to possess good communication skills. This is innovation!

Economic strength is itself power. We need added thrust to reforms and that too without delay. The more we delay the process, the greater the lead that others will get over us.

So will our policy-makers play their old game in keeping a part of the society handicapped and play vote-bank politics or will they bring in reforms, all the same including the larger section of the society? The answers we will have to seek within ourselves!

All electricity production emits greenhouse gasses therefore electric driven cars will indirectly continue to contribute to the greenhouse gasses problem because they will require to have their electric batteries re-charged.

Nuclear generated electricity is practically carbon free but what is the end result of this type of production? The reality, exchanging carbon free air now for an expired nuclear reactor (life span 25-30 years ) which has to be decommissioned and cocooned away from the public for at least a hundred years, plus its bundles of radioactive fuel rods will need to be entombed for even longer in underground concrete facilities somewhere within our borders. who is going to be around then to find out if these sites are actually safe. Also decommissioning costs can far exceed the construction cost of a nuclear facility adding billions to the cost of the electricity produced.

Hydrogen fuel cars, one of the major problems involved with this fuel is its distribution and storage because it is either liquid or pressurized. This system loses out to electric cars as all you require to keep an electric car running is an extension lead to charge up overnight ( when economy rates apply) but having said that you are then back to square one – having to produce more electricity. There is also an overhanging safety problem with this method.

Hybrid (electric and petroleum) cars, are on the road at present and there is some good press written about them; however very little is said about the dangers built into these cars.Take the battery for starters (sorry!), most hybrid cars have new type batteries made of nickel and lithium.ion, both components are regarded as more environmentally friendly than the traditional lead based type, which constitute the majority of car batteries today. Although nickel and lithium.ion batteries are accepted as less toxic than the traditional lead ones they are known carcinogens and can lead to an array of other health problems.

Not a great deal of testing has been done on the human body but possible side effects include xencephaly, everted viscera, short and twisted neck, short and twisted limbs, microphthalmia, haaemorage and reduced body size. ( Source:- Teratogenicity and Embryotoxicity of nickel cadmium in Syrian hamsters, William F. Sunderma. Univ. of Connecticut ).

A further overhanging problem for the hybrid car is in the manufacture of their advanced electric motors. The rare earth element dysposuim is required in their production, the problem is that nearly all this rare earth element comes from China and Chinese home consumption is expected to take up the whole supply by 2012. There are only two other known sites where this rare earth element can be found, in Canada and Australia, but whether production in these countries will be sufficient and online by 2012 is questionable. A study by one of the green lobbies also contends that hybrids are not as fuel efficient as the latest diesels.

To sum up the above from the point of view of claiming to supplying environmentally friendly fuels we have:-

a).. Nuclear which admittedly is very near carbon free but the nuclear, potentially dangerous, footprint from each power station will be around for hundreds of years.(If any one of you has ever had the experience of living near a decommissioning nuclear facility as I have you will know this

is fact.)

b)..Hydrogen at the present time our technology is not sufficient to make this a safe viable option, and should therefore be ruled out.

c)..Hybrid here we have serious problems with the supply of scarce materials for the production of vital components and also medical dangers which could result in serious deformities of the human body following the use of certain raw materials.

We already have the answer to our vehicles providing a much cleaner carbon free environment via lower carbon gas emissions at the same time saving money with much improved m.p.g. in the low cost water to fuel conversion systems now on the market.

Ethanol cars work in a way very similar to normal gasoline cars, and are a great viable alternative fuel option because of current high gas prices. The only real difference is that ethanol car engines are able to utilize the biofuel ethanol instead of oil based gasoline.

Ethanol fuel itself is extracted from plants such as corn or sugarcane, and refined into an alcohol. This alcohol is suitable to be used as a biofuel in cars and other vehicles. Most hybrid automobile engines that use ethanol can also use gasoline, and are also called “flex-fuel” engines. The ethanol is injected into the engine in the same way as a non-hybrid automobile engine. Though ethanol gives slightly less miles per gallon than gasoline, it doesn’t create as much air pollution when it is burned.

The similarities between ethanol “flex-fuel” engines and standard engines make ethanol cars cheaper than most alternative or hybrid vehicles, because they are built in much the same way as a regular engine. Ethanol is actually cheaper in some cases than gasoline, and thus a hybrid that runs on ethanol can be less expensive to operate than a gasoline based vehicle.

Most standard automobiles can even run on a 10% mixture of ethanol in gasoline. Many gas stations around the world offer ethanol as an alternative to gasoline, and in some countries cars are required to run on ethanol.

You can find out more information about Hybrid Cars at www.prohybrid.com along with video news, reviews, and tools such as price quotes and an automotive loan calculator.