THE fundamentals of public transport, complains Martin Lowson, an academic and entrepreneur, have not changed very much since the era of the stagecoach. Passengers wait at an arranged point for a large vehicle to arrive. It then carries them, along with a crowd of strangers, along a fixed route. The meandering course and frequent stops make the trip far slower than it would be in a private vehicle and the odd-looking person sitting opposite makes it less pleasant. But Dr Lowson’s firm, Advanced Transport Systems, thinks it knows how to overcome all this—and give public transport its biggest overhaul in three centuries—using a concept known as personal rapid transit, or PRT.

PRT still involves stations, but they would be smaller and more closely spaced than in traditional transit systems. Instead of big trains or buses, passengers would board small, driverless pods, for one to four people, which would travel along narrow tracks or elevated rails. The stations would not lie on the main line, but on bypasses, allowing pods to proceed directly to their final destination without any stops. It is the stuff of science-fiction films: carefree passengers whizzing effortlessly around in gleaming, automated capsules, without any fear of traffic jams, pickpockets or breakdowns.

In theory, such a system could carry as many people as a more conventional light-rail network or bus service, at lower cost. Since the pods would be much smaller and lighter than trains, they could run on flimsier rails, which would be cheaper to construct. Since they are automated, they could travel much closer together than manually driven vehicles and so get lots of people moving quickly. And since the pods operate only on demand, no money would be wasted on under-used or redundant services. (more…)

A large step forward in creating co-operation between the government and citizens to help combat climate change. A major percentage of energy produced is lost on inefficient consumers homes. This program provides an oppourtunity for citizens to lower thier environmental impact without breaking the bank. The best part about this is that once the intial (subsidized) cost and work is done it keeps on giving providing energy bill reductions all year long.

CANADA- January 21, 2007, the Honourable Gary Lunn, Minister of Natural Resources, announced the $220-million ecoENERGY Retrofit program to be launched on April 1, 2007. ecoENERGY Retrofit offers incentives for energy efficiency improvements in homes as well as in small and medium-sized organizations in the institutional, commercial and industrial sectors.

ecoENERGY Retrofit – Homes is designed to help homeowners and owners of existing low-rise properties make smart energy retrofit decisions that will result in significant energy savings and a cleaner environment. The first step in participating in ecoENERGY Retrofit – Homes is to call for a professional energy assessment provided by an energy advisor licensed by Natural Resources Canada (NRCan). The advisor will perform a pre-retrofit assessment of the home and provide you with your own personalized action checklist of upgrades that will reduce your energy consumption. (more…)

“The impact of climate change affects industrialized countries and emerging economies to the same extent. Protecting our economic future through innovation, energy efficiency and renewable energies is a global challenge.” -German Chancellor Angela Merkel

Senior legislators from the world’s eight largest industrialized countries and five key emerging economies are shaping their policy statements on global warming in advance of this year’s G8 Summit in June at the Baltic Sea resort of Heiligendamm, Germany. Germany currently holds the Presidency of the G8 group of nations.

The participation of the five emerging is important because climate change affects us all and we all need to work together to develop a strategy.

G8 countries - Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States.
5 emerging economies - China, India, South Africa, Mexico, and Brazil

“Global surface temperatures have increased about 0.6°C since the late 19th century, and about 0.3°C over the past 25 years.” -Intergovernmental Panel On Climate Change.

The EU wants to limit global warming to no more than 2°C above the temperature in pre-Industrial times.
Beyond the 2°C increase, there is a tipping point beyond which scientists predict catastrophic environmental and economic events such as irreversible damage to the world’s major forests, the loss of 95 percent of coral reefs, and sea level rise that threatens human life, property, and whole societies. (more…)

This new technological breakthrough is designed to quickly and efficiently transport single passenger through busy downtown centers. The 4 wheeled self propelled device cause no pollution and emits no greenhouse gasses. The unique design and creative setup allows for use on both roadways and sidewalks and could help eliminate congested traffic. Now what if I were to tell you it’s not so new. It’s actually quite old and you have probably owned one at some point. This common simple yet effetive device is called a skateboard. Yes the kind of thing Bart Simpson rides around on causing trouble.

This past weekend I went to visit some friends in the downtown core of Toronto. From Saturday evening to Sunday afternoon all my travel arrangements were via a newer age Skateboard. Even on a skateboard it only took approximately 5- 10 minutes longer to get where I was going over the bus or the car. Sure I did have to propel myself forward using my own strength but that was kind of the fun part.

Some of the major benefits of skateboarding as a mode of transport include: (more…)

April Lindgren
CanWest News Service

TORONTO - Ontario’s environment minister is calling on Ontarians to voluntarily reduce their plastic bag use by 50 per cent over the next five years even as critics dismiss the provincial goal as an ineffective public-relations ploy.

“The voluntary approach is a ticket for continuing the status quo,” Franz Hartmann, executive director of the Toronto Environmental Alliance said Wednesday following the announcement by Laurel Broten. “The government could have said they either were going to ban plastic bags or they could have said they were going to impose a significant plastic bag fee like they’ve done in Ireland.

“The impression that’s left with me is that they are not all that serious about actually eliminating plastic bags.”

Central to the government plan is a deal struck with the plastics, retail and grocery industries whereby companies have agreed to reduce plastic bag use by 50 per cent or one billion bags over the next five years. Retailers have also committed to “considering” in-store recycling depots for the bags and pilot projects are being set up to determine how to get consumers to convert to reusable bags. (more…)

An energy-efficient office is good for the planet—and your wallet
By Michael Gowan - MacWorld

You don’t have to drive a Prius, have a worm bin out back, or keep a picture of Al Gore under your pillow to be concerned about saving energy and natural resources. I think everyone can agree that saving money is good. It just so happens that reducing the amount of electricity your computer, monitor, printer, and other electronic devices use is both environmentally friendly and economical. It’s also easy when you know how. Here are eight ways to do that and more.

1. Catch your Zs
You might have noticed that if no one taps at its keyboard for ten minutes, your computer puts itself to sleep. All new Macs ship with OS X’s Energy Saver feature turned on, and that’s a good thing. According to Apple, a Mac uses about 77 percent less energy in this low-power mode than when it’s running at full power. (more…)