The Toyota Prius - A Car to Save the World

The Prius is confirmed to be one of the most well-known hybrids in the US and it's is primarily due to the reputation of Toyota itself. Add to that sensible design and a practical, city-sized ride and you have a car everyone can feel much better about buying and looking good while doing so.

The Prius was launched as a lightweight automobile globally in 2000 although launch of the Prii started in Asia beginning in 1997. The first gen Prius in the US was a great success due to its mixture of contemporary features and design along with its ranking as an Ultra-Low Exhaust Automobile which offered customers the opportunity to get a $2000 tax credit for their purchase.

In 2004 the Prius was remodeled as a mid-size liftback designed to fill the gap between the Camry and the Corolla. Besides all of the other upgrades it is now categorized as a SULEV (Super Extremely Low Pollutants Vehicle) and is certified by Florida Air Sources Panel as an “Advanced Technological innovation Partially Zero Exhaust Vehicle” (AT-PZEV).

So, what do all of the elegant shortened forms really mean? Well, according to the EPA, this year's Prius gets an impressive 48 mpg in the town and 45 mpg on the road. But, asides from the considerable benefits Prius owners enjoy due to its great fuel-economy, the Prius also tells the world that you're environmentally conscious and responsible. The beauty of the car though is that it looks like what you anticipate to see in a hybrid: its got innovative styling cues, flared and expanded headlamps and a liftback that makes your vehicle look like a space probe you would expect to see in intergalactic space.

2011 Honda CR-Z - Honda's Hybrid Answer to the Prius

This year's CR-Z is designed to be the heir to the Insight and to gain control of the hybrid market. For most of the first decade of the Twenty-first Century sales of all Honda hybrids fell far short to those of the Prius alone. Unsurprisingly, Honda hopes that the 2011 CR-Z will be the answer to their prayers.

From the outside, the 2011 CR-Z is squat and menacing but with a huge, clear hatch lid that continues to be modern even though it seems to have been taken straight from the old Insight. The CR-Z's device panel's structure, lighting and style, which create the revolutionary internal look while staying true to Honda's obsession with the functional.

All in all, the CR-Z seems to straddle the fence between green and boy-racer without completely perfecting either. Despite this reality, the CR-Z is an eye-catching ride with modern style hints within and without. Perhaps the best aspect of the CR-Z visual is discovered in the style of the back hatch out and over-sized taillights.

41 Innovative Environmental Projects Win Over $1 Million In Funding From Audubon And Toyota

Toyota and the National Audubon Society today awarded over $1 million inTogetherGreen Innovation Grants funding to 41 innovative environmental projects nationwide. This year’s winning projects involve more than 150 conservation, environmental justice and community organizations working collaboratively on habitat, water and energy conservation. Many of the projects focus on engaging audiences that have traditionally been underrepresented in the conservation movement, from landowners to religious communities to inner-city students.

“Groups that won Innovation Grants this year have ingenuity and creativity on full display. And that’s what it takes to tackle the environmental challenges we face today,” said Audubon President and CEO David Yarnold. “I’m proud to partner with these innovators in creative approaches to achieve healthier communities and big conservation results.”

Sample projects that will receive 2012 funding include:

• Habitat: In Connecticut, Audubon Connecticut and the Connecticut Student Conservation Association will create Audubon WildLife Guards, a Coastal Stewardship and Youth Conservation Training Program inBridgeport, Conn. The program will provide green job training, mentoring and employment opportunities for high school students who will work to protect threatened beach nesting birds on Pleasure Beach, the largest intact barrier beach in the state.
• Water: In Kansas, Friends of the Kaw, Inc., along with the Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation, Topeka Audubon Society and Jayhawk Audubon Society will launch the “Save Soldier Creek” campaign to minimize stormwater runoff  in the rural Soldier Creek watershed – reducing pollution and improving water quality and bird habitat).
• Energy: In Arizona, Nina Mason Pulliam Rio Salado Audubon Center and Arizona Interfaith Power & Light will broaden its Footprints of Faith campaign to African American and Latino churches in Phoenix and Tucsonpromoting steps congregations can take to reduce their carbon footprints.
• Engaging diverse audiences in conservation: In North Carolina, Wild South and its partners North Carolina Audubon Society, High Country Audubon Society, National Forests of NC and the Western North Carolina Alliance will reach out to military servicemen and women and nearby Asheville residents to involve them in controlling non-native invasive plants, monitoring bird populations, and educating the public on environmental issues. The goal of the project is to preserve the wilderness character and rare species habitat of the Linville Gorge Wilderness, one of the most rugged and scenic areas in the East.

“Toyota and Audubon really share in the belief that environmental change starts at the grassroots level,” said Patricia Salas Pineda, group vice president of national philanthropy and the Toyota USA Foundation. “We’re so proud to support this year’s Innovation Grants, which embody TogetherGreen’s commitment to conservation, innovation and diversity.”

Courtesy of US Politics Today

Pico y Placa - One City's Novel Way to Reduce Pollution and Congestion

On a recent trip to Ecuador for vacation and to visit family I was impressed by what Quitenos refer to as "pico y placa" which is a law which mandates when a person can use their automobile. In essence "pico" refers to rush-hour (forget about the literal meaning of the word because if you look it up in a dictionary you'll just find that it means "beak") and "placa" is the license plate of a car (the English cognate is "plaque" which kind of makes sense to me anyway). The last digit of your plate number determines which day of the week you cannot use your car between the hours of 7 and 9:30AM and 4PM to 7:30PM.

Some might say that this is more than a major annoyance and that it is an outright assault on personal liberty but I, personally, support the program and would love to see it instituted in NYC and other large North American cities like Toronto, Los Angeles and Chicago. This type of program was first brought into effect in the Columbian city of Bogota and adopted by Quito in 2010. The fines which increase steeply with each infraction and result in impound and jail time on the fourth occurrence are intended primarily to reduce traffic but have the added benefit of reducing pollution from idling cars.

Now, most of my family in Quito think "pico y placa" is a horrible idea and suggest that it has resulted in people buying and registering more cars to circumvent the law but I just don't think so. Ecuador, although steadily developing is still not rife with millionaires and the average salary in Quito is about $300 per month. People making this kind of money are simply not going to be buying new cars so they can drive on one day a week. Rather, it seems that people are being more strategic with their vehicle use and have adapted rather well. I hope to see more low-tech, high-concept ideas for green car use in the future and will be sure to keep my eye out so I can bring you more of this type of news.

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