• The Environment

    (Re)Building a Better Town

    By Annemarie Conte and Esther Haynes Posted on 9.8.2008 18 Comments

    On May 4, 2007, a two-mile-wide F5 tornado destroyed 95 percent of Greensburg, Kansas, leaving two thirds of the town’s 1,500 inhabitants homeless. Many thought the town was finished. But in fact, the townspeople decided to rebuild using the greenest, most forward-thinking materials and construction methods possible.

    10.1.2008 at 05:58am - Comment by pomgod

    Geodesic Dome houses... okay, maybe kind of tornado proof but b*tt ugly... Don't forget it still has to be nice to come back home. I'm sure there are plenty good (and good looking) alternatives to make housing tornado proof without having to live in a bunker...

  • Cars

    Why Can't Our Cars Get Better Mileage?

    By Posted on 7.3.2008 27 Comments

    In April, the U.S. Secretary of Transportation proposed new CAFE (corporate average fuel economy) standards that would increase the average efficiency of passenger cars and light trucks by 4.5 percent per year from 2011 to 2015. A lot of people wondered why the federal government wasn't aiming higher.

    10.1.2008 at 04:12am - Comment by pomgod

    Okay, I'm not a mechanic so I might miss a couple of things but 37miles/gallon as a standard by 2015? I just bought myself a new car here in Belgium. A 1.9l Diesel Engine, 105 horsepower etc. Not the most fuel efficient car/setup that's around here but it has an efficiency of 47miles/gallon in mixed traffix (5l/100km). I've been looking around a lot and if you look at the normal prices cars they're all at about that level. Every (European) brand also has it's eco versions which go even higher in miles/gallon. It seems to me that the ambition of the CAFE lays more in making oil companies earn more money then to do what it is supposed to do... Anyways, just my 2cents



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