Archive for July, 2006

It’s shaping up to be a green summer, that’s for sure. Silicon Valley startup Tesla Motors has recently announced that they will be unveiling their new and much anticipated electric sports car on July 20th. We’re calling it now, this sexy new car will change the face of electric vehicles forever. The target specs include 0 to 60 in about 4 seconds, a top speed of 130mph and 250 miles per charge, all at around 1 cent per mile. We at Vestal happen to know a few sharp engineers over at Tesla who are making it happen.  : )  Keep it up fellas. The world can’t wait to see what you’ve got under that sheet!

...And in case you didn’t catch it during the trailers before “An Inconvenient Truth”, there’s a thought provoking film called “Who Killed the Electric Car?” that just came out.

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Google has teamed up with Earth Day Network to provide a Google Maps -based directory of green businesses and options across five popular US cities. Also included is a Google Groups -based forum to discuss green “experiences” visitors have had.

Link
Forum

Happy 4th of July!

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We are beginning to work with the nonprofit organization Agenda SOS International here in Lima, and with them have begun visiting the slums and shantytowns outside the city limits. The poverty here is astounding – the entire “village”, known as the “Invasion” of Villa el Salvador, is made of tarps and reed mats – with sanitation generally consisting of a pit dug in the sand. Above, in another slum called Pamplona, residents have more permanent but no less dirty homes made of plywood and corrugated aluminum.

Sanitation seems to be one of the major problems confronting these communities. My thought is that some simple, carefully considered designs may be able to significantly improve the lives of the people here. More about that soon.

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