Thursday, 03 May 2001

Green Berets

After spending 12 million dollars, the U.S. Army has come up with a nifty new something -- a more eco-friendly bullet (rad!) that is just as effective at killing as past lead-based ones. The "green ammunition" uses a less toxic tungsten composite that the Army says will significantly reduce the soil contamination caused each year by the millions of slugs fired at practice ranges. The Army makes all the ammo for the U.S. military and hopes the switch to lead-free bullets will be completed in 2005; this year, it is sending 50 million bullets to practice ranges in Alaska and Massachusetts.

Jacques Be Nimble

French President Jacques Chirac was expected to woo green voters today and propose that the public be granted a constitutional right to a clean environment. In a speech released ahead of time, Chirac was planning to call on parliament to draft language for the French Constitution that would put environmental protections "on a par with civil liberties." The speech also reaffirmed Chirac's support of the Kyoto treaty on climate change and urged a country-wide debate "without taboo" on whether France should continue to rely on nuclear energy for half of its electricity. Chirac will likely face the leftist Prime Minister Lionel Jospin in next spring's presidential race. Jospin's coalition includes the Green Party, but strategists for the conservative Chirac feel he can lure voters to his side by running strong on the environment.

Pioneer Hybrid

Despite the five-month waiting list for Toyota Priuses in the U.S., Toyota has no plans to boost production numbers for its four-door gas-electric hybrid, which gets between 45 and 52 miles per gallon of gasoline. Toyota and Honda (its two-door Insight rates between 61 and 68 mpg) are planning to build fewer than 20,000 hybrid cars for sale this year in the U.S., where 17 million vehicles were sold last year. Although hybrid cars won't be competing with SUV sales anytime soon, some celebrities and politicians have flocked to them (Leonardo DiCaprio has two!). General Motors, Ford, and Daimler Chrysler say they will begin selling hybrid SUVs in 2003. Meanwhile, the world's first sports car running on rotting vegetables -- 220 pounds of the stuff powers the car for 62 miles -- is on tour at motor shows around the world.

Real Good!

President Bush today is ordering employees at all 500,000 federal buildings to dim lights, turn off office equipment not in use, and conserve energy in other ways to reduce the chance of energy shortages this summer. Casual dress will even be allowed on hot days, to limit the need for air-conditioning. A spokesperson for California Gov. Gray Davis (D-Calif.) urged Bush to go even further and match the state's pledge to reduce energy use in state buildings by 20 percent. Californians used 9 percent less electricity in the past two months compared to the same period last year. Solar power has a new cache in the state, and sales have doubled at Real Goods, a Northern California company that specializes in solar and energy-saving products.

Hitting the Bottle

Bottled water is no safer than tap water, but it can cost as much as 1,000 times more, according to a study released today by the World Wildlife Fund in Geneva. The group said that bottled water sales are soaring because people are concerned that tap water may be polluted. However, the study found that the only significant difference between the two types of water is that bottled water is not distributed by pipes but instead sold in, yep, bottles. In fact, WWF said regulatory standards for tap water in the U.S. and Europe are tougher than those for bottled water, and that low-income families would be better off boiling or filtering any contaminated tap water rather than ponying up the bucks for bottled water. And the group had this fun fact to share: About 1.5 millions tons of plastic are used to bottle water each year.