Unsought Input

Does sorting bottles and cans really save the earth? You may have heard the rumor that the whole thing is a big sham – either a misguided to make ourselves feel better about our wasteful lifestyles, or worse a conspiracy of crystal-wearing, tree-hugging hippies.

You may have noticed a number of geeky environment-related posts on Unsought Input. Some of our writers like to think of themselves as environmentalists. Now, before you click your back button, I should explain: no one here will ever tell you to stop driving and live in a cave! We are positive, progressive environmentalists who come to our green views through a love of innovation, efficiency, scientific progress, and yes, even market economics.

So, is recycling a bunch of bullshit designed to make us all feel better about ourselves? Does putting glass and plastic in a green bin actually damage the environment more than help?

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If you have missed the first two articles on this topic you can read them here and here. In this grand finale, if I may call it that, I will show you the best of the best (in my opinion) of the concept cars recently reported on on yahoo.com. These I thought were either really cool looking and futuristic or had really cool ideas or that I just kind of liked more than the others. Anyway, without further ado, let’s start the “Hey, that’s cool” category.

In third place we have the Toyota Volta:

This car looks like it could go very very fast. It also looks like the maximum height you could possibly be to drive in this vehicle is 5’5″ and that is pushing the limit. I don’t know if this is the fastest electric hybrid on the market but with dual electric engines (one for each front tire) this car boasts that it has a 408 horsepower hybrid engine, the safety of all-wheel drive and can do 0-60 in just four seconds. Look at those desert dunes. This car is ready to climb them, but I am a little worried that the hills are too steep and those don’t really look like tires that get the best traction. So, maybe it’s not good to drive in the desert, but since no one really off roads their vehicles like they do in the commercials, I think this car might be OK. (more…)

So yesterday our cars of the future article was on “Didn’t they do this already”. I think today’s category is “Wouldn’t be Caught Dead in This”. You can try to persuade me that people buy cars based on power and performance all you want but I am pretty sure that the look and style of the car is pretty important, too. Just like no one will ever want to be seen in the environmentally friendly Hummer, I can imagine the same will be said of most of these vehicles.

In third place we have the Ford Mercury Meta One.

You may argue that this car isn’t necessarily the ugliest car you have ever seen, in fact it’s okay. Work with me here for a minute, if you please. Think back to that movie about the cars that try to kill people. You know the one, the really bad Stephen King movie, Maximum Overdrive? This car will eat you. And your children. And then your neighbors and their families until it runs out of gas, which will take a little longer than a normal SUV since this runs on nice and clean ” hybrid transmission with a twin-turbocharged V-6 diesel engine calibrated to run on a bio-diesel blend”. You can see how I feel this is potentially hazardous to everyone, right? Just look into those headlight “eyes”. Those are the headlights of a killer. (more…)

So a recent article on yahoo.com‘s main page is all about green concept cars. It has some of the main players and a lot of pretty pictures. Here are the cars listed with a brief description as to alleviate you having to go to another site to read all about them. I am saving you time, thus saving you money as well so you can save it up to buy one of these awesome cars when the time is right.

I am going to break these down into three categories: Drivable/hey that’s cool, Wouldn’t be caught dead in this, and Didn’t we already do this?

Um, Alex, I would like to start with Didn’t We Already Do This for 200 please.

Ladies and gentlemen, I would like to introduce to you the 2010 VW Microbus, um I mean Chameleon. So, yeah, apparently the late 60′s are back and we are all going to be peace loving pot smoking patchouli smelling hippies. At least we have the perfect vehicle for it, I mean this “new” vehicle is all electricity powered with 10 count them 10 30v batteries in the floor to power the vehicle. Oh, the surf boards are thrown in free of charge, they are fitted with solar panels for recharging the batteries. This is the vehicle for those fifty somethings to relive their youth in a perfectly environmentally friendly manner. (more…)

Apparently, sales of the Hummer H2 are falling so fast that GM might even stop making them. Environmentalists will probably cheer this news, but there’s another reason I would never buy a Hummer H2 or H3 for that matter.

It’s complicated, so I’ve put it into a diagram: