WATCHING THE
WHEELS GO ROUND

Image left is the new electric moped that Oliver Lindon, one of my readers, just bought. Good to see my readership putting their money where their mouth is, and, by the way, putting money into their own future. By riding around on this vehicle he is keeping down expences and keeping the air cleaner. He will not have the parking and maintenance charges that cars have, and he will not spend hours on end looking for a parking space (which are all too often taken up by SUVs). His neighbours benefit from this move too, we all benefit. I have not asked yet, but I did wonder, having met him and his girlfriend, if two can share the ride? A long time ago I designed an ad for the bicycle industry for which the logo was: "Two can get closer on a bike."
Someone actually took that caption and used it with an image of two acrobats on a unicycle, but somehow, the unicycle industry has not yet taken off...It sometimes takes two to tango.

E-MOTION IN THE OCEAN

Sorry for the short notice, but we have just been informed that the Democrats Abroad sponsored screening of Who Killed the Electric Car has had a venue change, it will be shown tonight, 6 February at the London School of Economics. From North or South London take the 168 bus to Aldwych, nearest tubes are Blackfriars and Holborn. Doors open at 6:30pm, event starts at 7. On hand will be the show's executive producers, Tavin and Richard Titus, and also Peter Durante, who currently works selling CO2 credits for a major oil company...hmmm, on a cynical note, this sounds like dispensations sold by the church.
One of my readers, Oliver Lindon, recently sent me information about e-cars, he himself was one of the first to get an e-bike, which he tells me are now catching on a bit, so, contrary to a previous post, there are certainly more than two e-bikes in the UK. And with the upturn in bike sales, possibly as a refelction of the credit crunch, expect a lot more. Especially as they cost a lot less to run - Oliver kindly supplied some interesting statistics. He compared electric engines to the diesel and petrol run internal combustion engines. Basically, he points out that the ICEs use most of their energy for heat rather than motion, so they are wasteful. A good ICS emits roughly 120mg of CO2 per km, compared to 50mg of CO2 per km for the GWiz (or only 35 if the electricity is not completely coal generated). The Wiz, by the way, is the the small electric car that is seen quite a bit now in London. There are perks for using them, such as free parking. Further, the cost of travel in ICE cars runs about 6.33p per mile, compared to 1p per mile in a GWiz. Electricity does involve some amount of pollution, but less than petrol. The pollution coming from a power plant is more localised, and can be dealt with more efficiently - and also, electric power puts more people to work. Economic and ecological reasons favour the electric vehicles, but, as the film shows, there are forces in major industry and government that do not want us to use this.