Paris Announces Autolib' Car Service On Demand




Modeling itself after the successful Autolib' service already in practice in Lyon, France, Paris announced earlier this week that by March 2012, at the latest, their Autolib' service will be fully in play.

AutoLib', the electric car rental program, is modelled after the wildly popular Velib' program, whereby citizens, tourists and visitors alike can pick up a bicycle at numerous points around the city, use it for a half an hour, half a day or longer, and then drop it off at another station when they're finished with it. The pick-up and drop-off stations, which function as one and the same, are nearly as numerous as Metro stations.
The program is designed for short-term use for both the bicycle and Auto usage. They're available 24/7. And it is ridiculously cheap. To use an Autolib' car in Lyon prices start at 2,10 Euro for basic car models from Citroen, Peugeot, Toyota. You first purchase a membership for a minimum of one year and on top of that you pay a deposit to cover any possible damages. But you can even take a car between the hours of 11pm and 7 am for free.
On this program, Paris is worlds ahead of, for example, Santa Monica, a city in California, the nation's greenest state, that prides itself on its green transportation policies.
On December 16th the California Air Resources Board (CARB) voted in favor of California's nation leading Cap-and-Trade program under AB 32.
Here is what California's Governor had to say about it: 
And I'm so proud of this team here because it's one thing when the legislators get together and say AB 32  and here's the bill  and they give you these documents that are 1,000 pages long and all this stuff. And then the governor goes out and talks about it and I sign it and we have bill signing ceremonies and all of those things that we had. But then someone has to follow through and make it become a reality  and the people you see in front of you here are the people that make this become a reality. I know today, even though we are 10 years away from 2020 but I know today that we will have a reduction of 25 percent of greenhouse gases by the year 2020, only because I have such an excellent team here.
I am thinking that California may just need to take some pages from Paris's playbook on public transportation policy. Especially in cities such as San Francisco, Santa Monica, Pasadena and other such coastal cities that are already readily adaptable to something like the Autolib' and the Velib'.


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Agriculture and the Green Revolution

In case you missed it, the following is a summation of some of the topics included in the recent Conference that took place in the "Salad Bowl of the Nation," Salinas, California.

Read More About The Food Economy on Local Food And Wine

 

Another Drop In the Bucket: The Use of Hydroponics in Commercial Agriculture
View Presentation.

Deborah Walliser, Executive Director, Solsustech Inc. - View Bio.

As the world population increases, natural resources such as land, water and food become increasingly valuable.  The industry that feels the effect of all three is also charged with providing safe, healthy and sustainable food  for its consumers while battling natural disasters and changes in the political landscape.  One way to generate fresh healthy food, while using less water and resources is found in age old systems combined with today's technology.  Through this partnership, simple fast food production centers can be set-up all over the globe providing increased revenue and jobs for US business. The use of hydroponics  in the fresh produce industry can change the landscape of global food production while putting the US at the forefront of the industry.

Urban Green Agriculture
View Presentation.

William Butler, Chairman, GIT-Green Innovational TechnologiesView Bio.

This talk will focus on the uses of Multi-Technologies in the many fields of Water Treatment, Solar Energy, Fish Farming, Hydroponics and the raising of Food both Meat and Vegetables within the Water Environment, and the use of “Green” as a conduit of sustainable technologies, which are at hand right now to produce a viable and sustainable, yet simple solution to many of our problems today. Having experienced many tours and travels around the world, I have been able to cross pollinate many technologies to become more then what they were. Case in point was a tour of the Waste Water Treatment of the City of Shen Zhen. 

We saw 10 different types of treatment, but one stands out as useful for the sustainability of Human Life and would be able to contribute to a higher Quality of Standard Lifestyle in the future. This was the Mei Shanyaun Apartments in which I saw an Aquarium with a fish inside being fed by the Bacterialogically treated Waste Water from these apartments and this caused me to think and research what could be a next breakthrough in Water Treatment. So by using this technology and others to come up with a sustainable Ecosystem within the Environment of the Urban Culture, we can provide a better life for all; both the Urban and Rural Communities.

Growing Energy with the Sun, Becoming a Solar Farm
View Presentation.

Michael Gumm,
 Executive VP & Co-Founder,SunPods Inc. -View Bio.

In California with plenty of sun and land, going solar in the agri-world makes perfect sense to drive down your energy cost and to create a greener business image. The agricultural community with large plots of land and operations that require large amounts of energy is starting to embrace Solar whole-heartedly.  Large, grid-tied photovoltaic systems harvest the power of the sun and save any unused energy for later through net metering, creating a cushion of kilowatt-hours for future use. 

Some examples solar energy in agriculture can power include:
·         lighting and heating
·         crop and grain drying
·         greenhouse heating
·         Irrigation
·         Fruit, nut and vegetable processing and packaging
·         Grape and wine processing
·         Remote electrical supply 

Going solar is not difficult and today there are a number of ways to install and finance solar that we will explain.

Advances in Technology to Lower Cost of Waste Water Compliance while Producing Renewable Energy
View Presentation.

John W. Kuhry, Business Development, Real Green Power, Inc. View Bio.

Confined Animal Feeding Operations generate millions of tons of manure and billions of gallons of wastewater every year.  Uncontrolled greenhouse gas emissions and associated stench from the waste contribute heavily to global warming.

Methane is 25 times more harmful to the atmosphere than CO2.  A number of energy efficiency improvements recently developed can significantly lower the cost of compliance with the clean water act. By capturing and processing the methane produced in the treatment of  wastewater, a huge renewable energy resource is created. Anaerobic Digestion is the only viable solution that produces, rather than consumes energy. It is a solution  for farms of a few hundred to millions of animals, from many different animals including pigs, cows, chickens, ducks and geese separately or together.

For the Full Agenda Click HERE. 

 

Wednesday December 01, 2010, 03:30PM PST

Event Type: Conference
Location: The Fox Theater
241 S Main St
Salinas, CA 93901 US

Greening Beauty 

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