Thanks to YouTube, you can now see and hear all about the various parts of my Solar PV Experiment. If you have any questions, please use the comment box for this post.
Let me know what you think!
As reported on the BBC News website, Ford ‘Heralds the slow demise of the SUV’ due their customers environmental concerns and demographic trends.
Ford have long been the target of environmental groups who lampoon the fact that they have been at the bottom of the average fuel economy list for many years in succession, despite promises that things were changing. Recent events both within the US (Hurricanes) and externally (Iraq etc) have brought Petrol (Gas) prices soaring in the US - these facts, tied into generally increased public awareness and acceptance that the environment is suffering means that SUV’s and gas-guzzlers are really going out of fashion.
To counter this, Ford is finally starting to invest up to $1bn in new plants to produce Hybrid cars. Funny how the same company shut down all electric and hydrogen fuel vehicle projects a few years back - how things can turn in such a short space of time?
As well as the main Ford brand, they also own Jaguar, Aston-Martin and Land-Rover (amongst others) - brands not well-known for their fuel-efficiency. Many people may think that ’size matters’, but it seems that if you are referring to the engine capacity or weight of your car, you are starting to become a minority.
Read the full BBC article here.
When it comes to corporate bashing, McDonalds have been at the top of many people’s lists. Whether it was the infamous McLibel trials, the rainforest being slashed and burnt for grazing, or more recently, rainforest being slashed and burnt to grow soya, which is exported to Europe to feed to cattle which then become burgers.
So you’d think that with petrol (gas) prices in the US at an all-time high and SUV/Gas Guzzler sales retarding, that nobody with an ounce of marketing knowledge or corporate responsibility would want to associate McD with gas guzzlers. You’d think that right? Wrong! Some ‘clever’ person has decided (or been coerced) into providing little model Hummers (the ‘ultimate’ SUV’s built by GM which when launched 4 years ago do 10 mpg) in McD ‘Crappy Happy Meals’ for boys!
Not surprisingly, environmental groups are appalled. Brendan Bell, an energy policy analyst at the Sierra Club, says that Hummers in Happy Meals are about as responsible as “dipping a Big Mac in the fry oil and serving it to your kids.”
Mr. Bell says that McDonald’s is trying to make Hummers look cool, but that the vehicles are anything but. “The technology is passé,” he said. “For the H1 and H2, they’re running it off an engine that hasn’t been fundamentally redesigned since the 1950’s. What the next generation needs is better technology in our vehicles so that we can cut our dependence on oil and curb global warming.”
It seems that only boys get this marketing pressure though as girls ‘Happy Meals’ have ‘Polly Pocket’ dolls.
Check out the full story in The New York Times
