This week I've decided to take a look at some of the ways that we choose to get around and compare how they affect the envirnoment. This post is brought on by a recent trip to China. Over the winter break my wife, my good friend Rob and I were lucky enough to go to southern China and explore a few of the provinces there. We traveled for just over three weeks before heading north to Beijing to hook up with my folks. For me one of the most impressive things that I encountered on this journey were the signs of 'Green Alternatives' that seem to be popping up even in the rural districts of Southern China. We saw tonnes of solar heating cells, mostly for heating up water, some self operating off grid innovations in the area of things like street lights, but the most noticable and prevalent alternative option that Chinese people seem to be taking advantage of is the recent evolution of the electric scooter, which is literally running rampant from Yunnan to Guangdong.
I first noticed them in Guilin city. Sleek and silent they zipped by us emmitting nothing more than a soothing purr. They literally sound like happy cats! And it was a welcome relief compared with the smoky congestion that we encountered in Honk Kong and ShenZhen. At fist I thought it must be an anomoly of the region but as we pushed south and then west we kept descrying more and more of them. I vowed to do it little research when I got home and this week set about doing just that. In particular I was interested to find out how electric scooters compared to other forms of motorized transportation. 'There must be a reason that there are thousands of them on the streets and highways of rural south China' I thought. Interestingly enough it is not a trend that is taking off in China but encouragingly is spreading far and wide, from Europe to India to Canada and beyond (indeed my sister's husband's wife has recently purchased an electric pedal bike combo {way to go Rick!} and though he's encountered a few issues it is a move in the right direction.)
In my search for 'hard and fast' evidence I uncovered some intersting facts when it comes to the issues of electric vehicles in general. Here are just a few of them:
Interesting fact 1: Gas powered motors do not actually outperform their modern electric conterparts. In the past this was true, but with the new lithium batteries and improved motor components the electrics have caught up and in some cases are surpassing their gas guzzling (dirty sticky polluting) cousins.
No comments:
Post a Comment