Monthly Archives: July 2008
China’s green skyscraper
updated version: China’s green skyscraper: The Pearl River Tower China tries to greenwash its image of being the major polluter on the planet. Eco-architecture is part of that effort. Combined with China’s fondness for mammoth projects, a new flagship project is … Continue reading
Filed under Economy, Uncategorized
WTO talks collapse is adverse for all…
check out an updated version on my new blog: http://www.whatmattersweblog.com/global-economy/ The latest attempt to liberalize international trade failed. That’s pretty bad news for business people, blue and white collar workers and farmers in industrialized as well as developing nations. The World Trade … Continue reading
Filed under Economy, Global Issues, Politics
Air batteries could lead to the breakthrough of electric cars
Toyota has again proven to be the technology and innovation leader among car makers. The company’s research department in Japan announced a car battery that relies on pure air for generating electricity. With great foresight, Toyota established an own department … Continue reading
Filed under Economy
Emirates welcomes its first A380 superjumbo
Emirates Airline, the largest airline in the Middle East, has become a major global carrier. It’s been an extremely profitable airline since its inception with only one year without a profit. The overall performance of the airline is astonishing. It … Continue reading
Gasoline prices in the U.S. have recently hit record levels, but there are many countries where drivers are paying much more
According to the Energy Information Administration, the average U.S. retail gasoline price was $4.064 last week. This is especially painful as gasoline prices have almost doubled since January 2007: Chart from the EIA: Despite the recent price hike, gasoline prices in the U.S. … Continue reading
Filed under Economy, Global Issues, Politics, Uncategorized
First German offshore wind farm shows the huge potential of electric cars in terms of efficiency and stability of the power grid
The building work for Germany’s first offshore wind power park will start next week. The wind farm called Alpha Ventus is a joint venture of the utilities E.ON, Vattenfall Europe and EWE and will cost about €180 million. The German … Continue reading
Filed under Economy, Environment, Politics, Uncategorized
India’s Tata Motors and the Malaysian national carmaker Proton to launch electric cars soon
Even though people around the world are breathing a sigh of relief after the oil price fell below $125 per barrel for the first time in months, oil prices are still substantially higher than last year and in the medium term, we … Continue reading
Filed under Economy, Uncategorized
China to raise taxes on large cars
China makes a lot of effort to present itself in the best light ahead of the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing. Last week, Beijing introduced a new enforcement that should take half of Beijing’s cars off the road for the … Continue reading
Filed under Economy, Politics, Uncategorized
Preparing the introduction of the cars of the future
The electrification of car traffic is inevitable and essential to maintain our mobility, address climate change, reduce pollution and reduce our reliance on fossil fuel imports. That’s the only way to guarantee secure and affordable energy in the future. Slowly, … Continue reading
Filed under Economy, Environment, Politics, Uncategorized
China, India and other countries subsidizing gasoline to keep domestic prices down are forced to embrace electric cars
updated version: Auto Industry in Transition II Take a look at the graph…. Today, crude oil costs about $131 per barrel and it was already close to $150 per barrel early this month. Ten years ago, the average price for … Continue reading
Filed under Economy, Global Issues, Politics, Uncategorized
