What A Waste! - coming to BBC on July 25th
AGB reader "Garry" contacted us to tell us about a new BBC series called "What a waste!" in which they look at how the world is going to cope as the demand for power and energy grows and grows. This includes the quest to find the greenest car possible. According to the press release (which you can find after the jump), the documentary includes Felix Kramer's100+ mpg plug-in hybrid, the Tesla roadster, an interview to Amory Lovins about his own ideas about the future of the car and Colorado's Xcel Energy. And last, but not least the speak to GM about the Chevy Volt. Interested? Check if you have BBC available and check schedules for details.
[Source: BBC]
Press release
""What a Waste!" is a brand new BBC World series looking at how the world is going to cope as the demand for power and energy grows and grows. What is the greenest car? How can we build energy efficient homes and offices? And how can we effectively harness the power of the sun and wind?
To answer all those questions "What a Waste!" goes to China, to the USA, to South America and to Europe in search of the best energy saving strategies and to speak to the world's best experts. The five part series looks at public transport in Bogota, green cars in America, solar panel production in China and the city of Freiburg in Germany – possible the most eco-community in the world.
The world's oil supplies are looking strained, and fuel prices are rocketing. The future of the humble car, with it's crippling dependence on oil for fuel, is beginning to look threatened. But people need transport. Our entire economy is based on a solid transport base, and no-one wants to leave their cars behind. There must be another way.
The world over, the race is on to find a new way of making the car move, a new fuel to power our daily journeys. We travel to San Francisco, where Felix Kramer and the team at GreenGears are working on Plug-In Hybrid technology, converting the innovative Toyota Prius to a machine that charges in your garage overnight, and gets 100+ miles to the gallon. We meet the team at Tesla, whose Roadster model promises to be the world's first all-electric high powered sportscar. Meanwhile at the Rocky Mountain Institute in Colorado, Amory Lovins has his own ideas about the future of the car and the international addiction to oil that it causes. And Colorado's Xcel Energy company have designs on making the whole power grid friendly for electric vehicles. We see how innovation from new start-ups can come from the most unlikely quarters, and may change the car industry forever. But what of the big players? We also talk to GM about their own slate of vehicles that don't run on petrol, including the elusive Chevy Volt, and ask just who will win this pressing race to the future.
What A Waste! debuts on BBC World TV on July 25th. BBC World is available across Europe and Asia, and now in many parts of the United States. Please check schedules for details, transmission times vary according to location."
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
armmat 5:48PM (7/15/2008)
It would be interesting to see if this show ever makes it to the US...since people here are too sissy-mary to deal with such subjects.
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CanaDoc 6:23PM (7/15/2008)
I have to say I'm beyond excited for this - I've been secretly hoping that Discovery would do something along these lines... but my experience with the BBC tells me they have the stuff to pull it off as well.
Of course it won't be hard to cover the green scene better than FOX has been...
Here's a very brief taste of what's to expecta:
http://www.bbcchannelpartners.com/worldnews/programmes/1000011/video/18859
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ML 6:50PM (7/15/2008)
Hey moderator, do you check your spelling before you publish a topic? They read like they're written by a fifth grader. Oh sorry, maybe you ARE a fifth grader(!).
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ddub 7:15PM (7/15/2008)
Well I think newspapers are supposed be read at a 6th grade level. So maybe blogs are readable by 5th graders, low enough so even people like you can read it ML.
Nikax 9:04PM (7/15/2008)
Hey ML (don't you love conversations that start with "hey"), you're a rude little twit.
Nikax 8:28PM (7/21/2008)
In the US, we have BBC America, which is giving us such sterling fare as "Transvestite Wives" and "I'm A Boy Anorexic." Speaking of waste, it's 99% garbage.
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CanaDoc 11:10AM (7/16/2008)
That's awful. I can only hope that the BBC took a "When in Rome..." approach to BBC America.
TG 12:53PM (7/17/2008)
BBC has an excellent idea in this, if they do it well.
The writer who can research and explain the powerful forces that stopped the EV1 and improved versions of same from coming to the market in reasonable time will have a best seller.
Today, I continue to drive a 4cyl 1987 Jeep wagoneer about town. It looks as good as any other vehicle so no shame in ownership. At about 300,000 kms, a new starter and a very tired engine it*s a gutless free local ride.
I should be able to buy a used but improved EV1 now thirteen years after the GM product became available.
Here in British Columbia Canada there seems nothing is possible in PEVehicles.
Hybrids are useless as during a gas shortage they go nowhere, just as any other gas or diesel guzzeler vehicle.
The only logical next vehicle choice is a PEV and nothing reasonable is available. This does not make sense in *Free* North America.
So this is what it*s like living in Communist Russia. = TG
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