Super-Green Yachts, Electric Bamboo Bikes, Solar-Powered Roads, & Airport Wildlife Runway Zones? What Next? – a Trotting Horse-Propelled Treadmill-Driven Eco-Car?

It’s been over 20 years since I last saw the cartoon-animated sitcom, ‘The Jetsons”, about a futuristic American family living in a space-age ‘Skypad Apartment’ whose home rises and falls vertically on an adjustable column in the year 2062.  But being a kid back then growing up in a traditional cookie cutter suburban environment, what I wanted to copy most was this television show’s family ‘aerocar’ – a fast flying saucer-shaped car with a transparent bubble top that my own mother could use to drive me to school and YMCA swimming classes.  I wasn’t thinking of eco-friendly and sustainable transport back then – rather I was always thinking of excuses to get my parents to drive me to ‘fun’ places with the least amount of fuss.

Well today’s ‘fuss’ is all about new types of ‘environmentally sustainable transport’ now being developed for public consumption – transport energy based on electricity, natural gas, and biofuels rather than petroleum or a combination of the two as seen in ‘hybrid electric trains’ and ‘plug-in hybrid cars’.  Some of the really neat alternative energy vehicles include a newly tested electric bamboo bike that combines pedal power and electric power in a lightweight bamboo frame – a versatile grass that grows everywhere throughout the Philippines.   And at Yellowstone National Park, clean green snowmobiles are being tested that use biomass alternative fuels to cut hydrocarbon emissions by 90% and noise pollution by 50%. And at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Department of Aeronautics & Astronautics, a green airplane has just been developed which uses 70% less fuel than conventional airplanes in addition to reducing noise and nitrogen oxide emissions. But perhaps the most interesting development on the ‘leisure landscape scene’ is that of a “super-green superyacht” designed recently by Alastair Callender, a then 23 year old student at Coventry University in England.  His eco-friendly luxury yacht design utilizes solar, wind, and hybrid marine power by incorporating 600 square meters of solar panels on the exterior of the boat and giant fully automated rigid “wings” that function like solar-sails.

Not to be outdone, Italy’s newest transport construction has just been officially opened to the public on January 1, 2011 – this the world’s first solar-powered highway!  This two mile addition to Sicily’s existing 600km highway network features 80,000 photovoltaic panels to power 100% of the highway’s needs – “including tunnel fans, lights, road signs, emergency telephones, and more.”  It is expected that 10,000 tons worth of CO2 emissions and 31,000 tons of oil will be saved in one year’s time. Meanwhile the cruise ship terminal at the port of Vancouver in British Columbia, Canada (known for its famous Alaskan coastline cruises) has gone green! It is the first port in Canada and the third in the world to install an electrical ‘plug-in’ system for docked cruise ships whereby electrical shore power connections have replaced the need for diesel engines running idly.  It is estimated that during last year’s 2010 season alone, greenhouse emissions were reduced by 1500 tons.

But perhaps the most visible displays of transport infrastructure going green are at the world’s busiest airports!  Indeed seven of the twelve greenest airports in the world are right here in the USA:

1)          Bob Hope Airport in Burbank, California

2)          Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport in central Texas

3)          Denver International Airport in Denver, Colorado

4)          Logan International Airport in Boston, Massachusetts

5)          Northwest Florida Beaches International Airport in Panama City Beach, Florida

6)          San Francisco International Airport in northern California

7)          Stevens Point Airport in Stevens Point, Wisconsin

The other globally-located greenest airports in the world include: the Beijing Capital International Airport in China, the East Midlands Airport in England, the Munich Airport in Germany, the Toronto Pearson International Airport in eastern Canada and THE SUPER-GREENEST AIRPORT OF THEM ALL – the ZURICH AIRPORT IN ZURICH, SWITZERLAND!  In addition to utilizing geothermal energy for heating and cooling, rainwater for flushing airport toilets, an on-site compressed-natural-gas station that powers its airport cars, trucks, and machinery and solar cells for its daily operations, the Zurich Airport has an adjoining nature conservation zone for over 50 species of flora and fauna between two of its main runways!  So in addition to ‘planespotting’, and ‘nature gazing’, visitors to the airport can also ‘rent airport bikes’ around its 22 kilometers of bike-path-paved airfields to fill up their waiting time!

But not all green forms of transport energy and transport infrastructure are utilizing the newest technologies of today.  My favorite exception is the newly patented ‘Naturmobil’ – a vehicle run by a horse jogging on a treadmill – invented by a clever Iranian engineer. Yes, instead of using the centuries old method of having a horse pull a wagon or sleigh – the horse is inside the motor-driven vehicle working out on a treadmill which then charges the batteries that power the vehicle.  Like today’s cars, it is controlled by a human driver in the front seat with room for one passenger.  But unlike ‘George Jetsons’ aerocar, it can only cruise at about 12 miles per hour with a top speed of about 50 miles per hour and the ‘Naturmobil’ can only work on paved roads.  Now if only we can get it to fly!  Stay Tuned for Next Week’s Episode!