Good News …because we have to be positive in this world…

Obama is almost there...

Barack Obama has won the North Carolina Primaries by massive margins (57% vs. 43%) whereas in Indiana it was very close (Mrs. Clinton won by 51%-49%).

We think that Obama should be the nominee and that the Democratic Party should move forward now. A few major endorsement can make the difference and attract the yet undecided unpledged delegates. Mr. Edwards and Mr. Gore should say “YES WE CAN”, to turn the page and limit the damage the overlengthy Democratic Primaries might have done to the party.

Obama is consistent and strong on his stand against the lobbyists; he is the one who can send them home with a box of sour chocolates and their tails between their legs. We trust him more than we trust Mrs. Clinton, who actually took money from several lobbyist groups.

Let’s hope that the somewhat uneasy message of Obama against a Gas Tax Holiday won’t hurt him, but will underline his sincerness and electibility.

Recycling on the campaign trail

You cannot start early enough with acting conscious towards the environment. The Obama Campaign understood this, and has launched a very interesting initiative at ObamaCycle.com. The site offers a platform for people that want to resuse campaign materials.

New Al Gore video

His famous presentation was hold 2000 times. Here in February 2008, he presents an 27-minute slideshow for the first time.

See here

It’s worth your while!

Dopamine related to Aggression

Researchers of the Vanderbilt University have found that dopamine release is involved to aggression. This means that the reward system plays a role here

According to Mr. Kennedy, one of the researchers:

“We learned from these experiments that an individual will intentionally seek out an aggressive encounter solely because they experience a rewarding sensation from it, […] This shows for the first time that aggression, on its own, is motivating, and that the well-known positive reinforcer dopamine plays a critical role.”

Subjects of the experiments were, of course, mice in a cage. When confronted with ‘intruder’ mice our mouse poked their noses. Later on, as he had learned that he could make the intruders appear by pressing a button, he did so over and over again. He was deliberately seeking aggressive behavior.

Why is this GC news? Well, I think that understanding aggression at a physiological level is important. A lot of the bad things done to our planet are best to be described as raw aggression. Maybe the big oil drillers and forest roders should be medicated with dopamine reception inhibitors?

Read the article here.

Loremo: simple, clever, fun

You probably remember the fancy science fiction movies from the eighties with cars that could take off and fly through the airspace. Well, that future still seems far away but, caused by the increased attention for the environment, a new era has come. Marked by the announcement of the Low Resistance Mobile, in short Loremo, we are now facing a true revolution of the personal car transport. The Loremo is sort of a four-person sports car that can achieve what no one thought would be possible. It uses only 2.01 liters of fuel each hundred kilometers, and thus can drive from Amsterdam to Moskow without refilling. How can that be? “Well, quite simple” the designers say, “why would you move a 1000 kilo car just to move an 80 kilo person?”. The car weighs less than 600 kilo and has an extremely low resistance (aerodynamic coefficient=0,20 for the experts). The website of Loremo offers more interesting details. Don’t miss it! You can buy a Loremo on the European market from next year on and it won’t cost more than 15.000 euros.

Oilprice reached 100 $ mark

Why do we present this item in Good News? Because Green Challenge believes in the market when it comes to alternative solutions under economic pressure. And the consumer is under economic pressure. The consumer will lose significant economic power and will be unable in the long run to sustain her actual oil consumption level. So she will start to think and learn about the alternatives. This is, I think, the only way to make the necessary shift to sustainable energy successfull.
Consumer behaviour is predictable: when the oil price fluctuates within certain boundaries, say between 120-150 dollars/barrel, we can observe a calculable shift towards the alternatives.
Let’s hope so for the new year.

Nissan and Daimler praised for environmental efforts

Nissan Motor Co and Daimler AG are praised by an independent coalition of global investors for their environmental efforts. For the first time Nissan is on the ?Climate Disclosure Leadership Index? of the non-profit Carbon Disclosure Project. Last year five major car companies, BMW AG, Ford Motor Co, Renault SA, Toyota Motor Corp and DaimlerChrysler made it to this list. Nissan announced in an environmental action plan to focus on reducing carbon dioxide emissions in its products and promised that in 2010 its factories CO2 emissions would be reduced by 7% compared to 2005. It now seems that Nissan is surpassing Toyota in its reputation, especially now that Toyota tries to scuttle the more stringent fuel economy standards that are currently proposed in the Senate. [source: Reuters News Service]

Al Gore and the IPCC win Nobel Peace Prize

The Nobel committee in Oslo has anounced that Al Gore and the International Panel on Climate Change has won this year’s Nobel Peace Prize.

Al Gore will donate his part of the money (1,1 milion Euro) to his Climate Alliance; Rajendra Pachauri, head of IPCC, said he hoped for greater recognition of the catastrophic situation of our planet.
Pachauri was very happy with the good news, he said from his office in New Delhi.

Ban Ki Moon, Secretary General of the U.N., also was very glad with the Nobel Committee’s decision.

The Green Challenge congratulates them wholeheartedly.

Membrane catches CO2

Researchers of the Norwegian University for Science and Technology (NTNU) developed a new type of membrane made of plastic material that has been structured by means of nano-technology. The membrane catches CO2 while other waste gasses past freely. This technology can be used for instance in coal fired power plants to reduce their CO2 emissions. It is an effective, eco-friendly and relatively cheap technology. The effectiveness of the membrane is based on the principle that the CO2 molecules in combination with moisture form bicarbonate, which is then quickly transported through the membrane. In this manner, the CO2 is released while the other gases are retained by the membrane. This method is comparable to the way our lungs get rid of CO2 when we breathe. Unfortunately this is a solution only half way there, the other half is what to do with the C02 once captured…
For more detailed information on the research see here (pdf download)

Philippinean Apo Reef recovering!

The Philippinean government has tightened laws banning fishing and collecting of species in the heavily threatened Apo Reef Natural Park, the largest coral reef of the Philippines. Two thirds of the 27.400ha reef had been destroyed by overfishing and destructive fishing methods like dynamites and cyanide. In 1990 only one third of the original surface of the reef was alive but since the 1994 governmental ban on fishing some of the threatened fish species returned to the reef. ?The tightened regulations declare the Apo Reef a ?no-take zone? in order to guarantee its recovery? says Gregg Yan of the WWF-Philippines. ?Already several threatened species return to the reef such as a recently sighted group of about a hundred scalloped hammerhead sharks.?