E@zyVG’s Vichar::World Connected

It’s not quite the same type of hybrid drive-train you’d see in street vehicles, but in an exciting announcement, Max Mosely of F1 has announced that all cars will become hybrid by 2013, along with other changes to the vehicles.

The hybrid system that will be phased in is known as KERS, which stands for Kinetic Energy Recovery System. KERS doesn’t store as much energy as a traditional hybrid system, but it only weighs 55 pounds and the limited energy storage capacity is well suited for Formula-style racing.

The biggest difference between KERS and a regular battery-electric hybrid is that KERS stores recovered waste energy in a rotating flywheel. Instead of converting waste energy into electricity and than back into useful energy again with an electric motor, KERS simply transfers the kinetic energy to a ~5kg flywheel in the F1 car’s transmission. The energy stored in the flywheel can then be used by the driver by pushing a “boost” button.

KERS is particularly exciting for us regular car drivers because the creators have claimed that it is twice as efficient as a standard hybrid system. If this system can be applied to production vehicles, it will be possible to realize huge improvements in fuel economy and pretty respectable reductions in GHG emissions.

The systems has its’ pros and cons, as well as supporters and those who are not liking it, at least with the current version. I am quite sure that with time this will evolve to suit all the teams, and later will be a version for street cars.

Rainforest in Mato Grosso, Brazil

Climate change could speed up the large-scale destruction of the Amazon rainforest and bring the “point of no return” much closer than previously thought, conservationists warned today.

Almost 60% of the region’s forests could be wiped out or severely damaged by 2030, as a result of climate change and deforestation, according to a report published today by WWF.

The damage could release somewhere between 55.5bn-96.9bn tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere from the Amazon’s forests and speed up global warming, according to the report, Amazon’s Vicious Cycles: Drought and Fire.

Trends in agriculture and livestock expansion, fire, drought and logging could severely damage 55% of the Amazon rainforest by 2030, the report says. And, in turn, climate change could speed up the process of destruction by reducing rainfall by as much as 10% by 2030, damaging an extra 4% of the forests during that time.

By the end of the century, global warming is likely to reduce rainfall by 20% in eastern Amazonia, pushing up temperatures by more than 2C and causing forest fires, the report said.

Destroying almost 60% of tropical rainforest by 2030 would do away with one of the key stabilisers of the global climate system, it warned. Such damage could have a knock-on effect on rainfall in places such as central America and India, and would also destroy livelihoods for indigenous people and some 80% of habitats for animal species in the region.

The “point of no return”, in which extensive degradation of the rainforest occurs and conservation prospects are greatly reduced, is just 15-25 years away - much sooner than some models suggest, the report warns.

The Japanese team, HondaF1, have unexpectedly come out with new livery that is a little strange at first look as this has never been attempted on any F1 car in the past. Remember, the Formula1 is all about a lot of cash and ads on the livery of any F1 team play a vital role as this is usually the source of money that goes on to development and maintenance as well as administration and salaries for the personelle.

The idea is simply brilliant. I have always talked about the safety of our planet and how we need to take care of our planet Earth. The new RA107 has a minimum of sponsor imagery, instead featuring a large map of the Earth. The livery aims to promote an environmental message. The back of the livery is mostly black, and think they could have come up with something better. I’ve always had a soft spot for Honda.

Honda Racing F1 admit that painting the cars will do nothing to save the environment, but is intended to generate interest and debate. The target is to win the world championship while also embracing Honda’s environmental ethos.

Honda has a new website http://www.myearthdream.com/ where people can make a pledge to change their lifestyle and donate to environmental groups in return for having their name placed (microscopically) in the paintwork of the car. The Honda Racing F1 Team will work closely with global environmental charities to develop Honda’s existing environmental ethos within the world’s most high profile motor-sport. Revenue from sales at myearthdream.com, money from pixel purchases, and a portion of the sponsor fees, will all go into the pot to be distributed to charities, such as the WWF or Greenpeace, from there.

The idea of using an environmental theme on a F1 car sounds weird, given the high utilization of energy and high level of pollution. But who knows what the guys at Honda have for us in their garage! On whole I can say that the design is OK and it most definitely is original! I really do love this concept and we need to support this initiative that HondaF1 has taken.

Greenpeace launched the ’Guide to Greener Electronics’, which ranks companies on their use of harmful chemicals and electronic waste recycling. The guide is being used to create demand for toxic-free electronics which can be safely recycled, by informing consumers about company performance on these two issues. The scorecard ranks the 14 top mobile and PC producers and currently all fail to get a green ranking.

Nokia and Dell share the top spot in the ranking. They believe that as producers they should bear individual responsibility for taking back and reusing or recycling their own-brand discarded products.

So the list of top 14 Greenest (with capital G) are:

1. Nokia
2. Dell
3. HP
4. Sony Ericsson
5. Samsung
6. Sony
7. LG Electronics
8. Panasonic
9. Toshiba
10. Fujitsu Siemens Computers
11. Apple
12. Acer
13. Motorola
14. Lenovo

The scoring is weighted more heavily on the use of toxic substances in production rather than criteria on recycling, because until the use of harmful substances is eliminated in products, it is impossible to secure ’safe’, toxic-free recycling.

Notice that 7 Asian based companies are listed, and 5 of them are in top 5. Also good to see Nokia and HP in top list as I really admire these companies for their products and service support. BTW, I am thinking of replacing my 19″ Philips LCD with a 22″ LCD screen in the near future and as my budget is quite tight, think Acer is one of the options.