THE ESTAR CAR
If you are in despair about the state of the planet, wish you could buy a car that did not add to the mess being made of it, but feel helpless in the face of the big carmakers' refusal to stop producing millions of fossil vehicles, then make a paradigm shift to people power. The Big Iron carmakers do not want the world to go from fossils vehicles to electric, because fossil vehicles are complicated things to make, so they can only be made at an affordable price by Big Iron. Electric vehicles are far, far simpler, so manufacture would escape from the hands of the powerful few and fly over the wall into the hands of the many. If the world turns to electrons the reign of the Big Iron boys will be over. People power will have replaced it.

A parallel happened in the computer industry. Once computers were mainframes--big, complicated and hard to make. Only big, well-heeled companies could make them and support them. Then the PC was invented. It was small, it was people-sized, it was made from off-the-shelf bits. And oodles of people could make them. The Little Iron machines ended the reign of the Big Iron.

It is the same with cars. The Big Iron boys are dragging the chain on planet-friendly cars as long as they can. They pretend that billions of dollar and years of effort have to be consumed in R&D before all the problems have been sorted out and mass-production of vehicles running on electrons can start. Bunkum! A very profitable bunkum for them, but still bunkum. Detailed costings show that a prototype electric car, with a good range, can be produced for $500,000. Not billions. Just $500,000, and at most two years of development. A powerful BEV with a good driving range and superb performance and driveability, and FCV-ready.

People power can make it. Many a little makes a lot. If 500,000 people chip in $1, the project would be on its way. Or 250,000 people $2. Or 100,000 people $5... One person chipping in $500,000 would be good, but people power is far, far better. Once the prototype is on the road, mass-production can start using dispersed teams. No big factories. Teams using small premises to assemble modules. People power again.

Please click on the Donate to the E*Car link in the Links section on the right-hand side of this page to see the specifications overview. Then send a small donation, either by crediting to the bank account shown on the E*Car page, or mail a small cheque or a small-denomination United States, British, Euro, Australian or New Zealand banknote (folded in a sheet or two of notepaper for a tad of security) to 'The EStarCar, 2-4 O'Brien Road, Rocky Bay, Waiheke Island, New Zealand 1240.' Then watch the total figure on the E*Car page grow. Thank you for caring about the planet.

Click on the About EStarFuture link in the Links section if you want to know more about the company. In summary it is passionate about the planet, and determined to do something about it. With a little help from a lot of friends.

BUREAUCRATS AND POLITICIANS!
This is a newborn blog, in New Zealand, which makes it new twice over. Being newborn it has nothing much in it yet, but it intends being very human and very passionate about the state of the planet, and what we should be doing about it, and what the prats we optimistically call politicians are doing about it. The problem is that politicians are really nothing but bureaucrats who make speeches, bureaucracies tend to attract people with low self-esteem, and people with low self-esteem tend to act in ways that are not in their best interests or the best interests of the society in which they live. Which explains a lot. Their main interest is in survival--keeping the emblems and perks of the rank we were foolish enough to give them--but not doing anything good. Survival is the base instinct of all bureaucrats, so they work the system to achieve that. The problem is that subconsciously, because of their low self-esteem, they tend to act self-destructively. Which also explains a lot.

It explains, for instance, why the Prime Minister of New Zealand, Helen Clark, bluntly told a New Zealand scientist that she did not have time to spend two hours considering the solar-hydrogen technology that is the only viable solution to the biggest problem facing the human race, the biggest problem that has ever faced it, the peril we have brought upon ourselves from what is euphemistically called global warming--global overheating is the correct description. The PM did not have time for that. She wastes hours of her time considering trivia. But she has no time to set about trying to save her country from being part of a global catastrophe. If you set a low value on yourself you set the same value on everyone else...

While you are here, if you live in Enzed (aka NZ, New Zealand, Aoteoroa), you may find some interesting stuff in the rest of EStarFuture's site. Click on EStarFuture's Homepage under links near the top of the right-hand column.

Parents and teachers in particular who are interested in trying to save this poor old planet from being battered completely to death will get value from scrolling down to the foot of the homepage and clicking on the orange E icon, or click on the Science Education link in the Links section at the top right of this page. That takes you to the science education pages, where you can see, and buy, the equipment that gives students hands-on experience of 'sunlight and water' technology--the combination of solar and hydrogen technology which alone is non-polluting. No carbon-dioxide, no methane, no nitrous oxide, just electrcity, heat (about 80 degrees Celsius) and pure water. That is all you get out of it (unless you are stupid enough to run the factory that makes it on power from coal/oil-fired power-station). The ideal solution.

Just don't waste your time talking about it a politician. Unless it is that rare exception, a Winston Churchill. He was a real politician, a statesman, not just a jumped-up bureaucrat on steroids.