And now another treasure from Italy not seen in any museums, but certainly zipping all around them. Cozy and adorable although at first glance for us Americans, they’re freakishly small. As I took in great works of the last couple thousand years, I saw these little cars as the future, even if just for the next century. This, my friend, is a Smart Car–and they’re ALL OVER Italy. Well-appointed and apparently safe, at 60 mpg (70 mpg for the diesel model) they happily buzz around the ruins of the fallen Roman Empire with a great environmental irony. Also spotted by this intrepid (and at the time, overfed) T&P correspondent was this hot little model not yet seen in the US: the Mercedes A Class. Coopers and Fiats were everywhere too but I can assure you that the gas-guzzling Cadillac Escalade would be driven out of Rome like an Etruscan. And, of course, parking is less of a concern (by half) when you can park perpendicular to the curb.
With the price of gas at about $6/gallon in Europe Smart Cars, Coopers and Fiats are absolutely all you see. No SUVs, no pickups, and the buses are even on a small scale and run on biodiesel.
Fret not, though. Smart Cars are lining up to make the journey across the pond to the US very soon. Mercedes is bringing them to the US next year so soon enough you can be the first on your street to own one, or two, or three.
Earth Day reports abound this year so I’ve compiled a few of my favorites below to which I will add throughout the day as I find them. So toss a coin in the T&P Trevi Fountain and return again as the day goes on:
- ABC News: Diane Sawyer’s life in garbage mind-blowing consumption statistics and some reports on progress from around the planet.
Bill Maher: The Birds, the bees and Earth Day “New Rule: From now on Earth Day really must be a year round thing. And in honor of this Earth Day, starting Monday supermarket clerks must stop putting the big bottle of detergent with a handle on it in a plastic bag. I don’t mean to tell you how to do your job, but you see that handle you just lifted the detergent with?”
MSNBC: Narwals used to track warming The narwhals dive as deep as one mile to feed on bottom fish and already have provided the first winter temperature measurements in Baffin Bay between Canada and Greenland.
The website for The Vanity Fair Second Annual Green Issue is giving me some trouble, which made me glad to have the hard copy. That’s Leo DiCaprio and our little friend Knut (who is just off a bad week of teething problems and death threats) gracing the cover. Next year’s cover may feature Knut looking at Leo while licking his chops, but even this year neither of them were actually together for the photo or in that setting. Top notch reading contained therein if the site works for you.
MTV’s “Pimp my Ride” and California Gov. Arnold Swartzenegger pair up to convert a 1965 Chevy Impala, producing a vehicle that accelerates from zero to 60 mph in three seconds. The converted car’s emissions of greenhouse gases will be 50 percent lower than a comparable gas-powered car. And biodiesel fuel can be made from recycled products such as vegetable oil.
For this Earth Day 2007, along with my own hopes that Iceland stays Green and Greenland stays Ice, let me leave you with this:
“May there only be peaceful and cheerful Earth Days to come for our beautiful Spaceship Earth as it continues to spin and circle in frigid space with its warm and fragile cargo of animate life.”
–United Nations Secretary-General U ThantMarch 21, 1971.
Amen. So, whatcha gonna do?
Start by changing a lightbulb today. I know they’re not perfect but did you know that over the course of it’s ‘life’ a single conventional light bulb fueled by a coal burning power plant is responsible for emissions of about 1,800 pounds of carbon, the approximate weight of one healthy polar bear? No kidding. Enjoy whatever empowerment you choose today, however big or small, but just do it.
3-ply?
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We buy toilet paper here (we have to because the local newspaper doesn’t work very well). For a while we were doing 3 ply, then we tried 4-ply. Uncomfortable, so we went back to 3-ply. But the last time we bought toilet paper–a few days ago–I noticed that they actually had 5-ply available.
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It was hilarious.
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The Smart Car
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It’s actually a cute little car. And despite its short wheelbase, it seems to have a lot of interior room. It’s been around here in Germany for probably five years, if not longer. We’ve been told that it is actually manufactured by Daimler (soon to be divorced from Chrysler) manufacturer of the Mercedes. (Tidbit: Daimler’s–the person–daughter was named Mercedes, hence the name of the car).
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I don’t know what relationship the Smart Car has to the Mercedes A-class, but I will let you know that a few years ago we rented a Mercedes A-class here, and the seats were extremely uncomfortable. Be very careful if you are considering a Mercedes A-class.
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Mini-Coopers are also all around in Germany (rumor has it that they are actually mini-BMWs). Fiats, particularly Pandas are also ubiquitous.
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Regarding SUVs, despite the high cost of benzine here, there are more than a few of them. Not as many as in Wellesley, but more than a few.
Awesome comment. Do you know I was in Munich too but never left the hermetic seal of the airport. I could write an essay on the service and punctuality of Lufthansa, in addition to their 70% fuel efficiency improvements recently, but will save that one for another day. I did sign up for their frequent flyer program so hope to use them again. Even the little 30-seat prop plane I took over the Dolomites/Alps (ugh) featured an entirely yummy organic snack. Once in Munich, I contemplated snapping a photo of the Munich public restrooms which were far cleaner than my own, but I figured I best put this little obsession to rest. đŸ™‚
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Love those little Smart Cars and at about $15,000, I can’t wait to own one. I heard about the breakup of the ill-concieved marriage of Chrysler and Daimler–not shocked–but we’ll have to see how these little honeys make their way over. Overall, Europe’s got it hands full trying to help us downsize on the road.
…the best shopping center that has a few airport gates attached to it.
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Terminal 2 at the Munich airport is entirely Lufthansa. But we’ve been laughing about that ever since we noticed the “shopping mall” aspect to the terminal.
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BTW, try going through the Zurich shopping center–um, airport–some day. They have completely remodeled the airport. Another great shopping center.
But they’re a pain to get and quite expensive due to import issues, engine/exhaust modifications, etc.
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In any case, I’ve riden and driven the FourTwo. It’s fab, it’s fun, and it drives well. Far more roomy on the inside than it appears, and due to it’s design is amazingly crash safe.
Apparently there is a dealer selling them in New Hampshire. They are very small and very cute.
spotted today in Salem just now. I saw a bunch of them in Italy but none of them here. Could this be the next European invasion?
we will be starting up a worm composting system on our balcony as soon as it is warm enough next month. this is a great way to keep lots of food scraps, paper and even old rags out of the landfill. and it’s worms – what could be more fun? đŸ™‚
So there’s hope for me. Cool, Laurel.
…my mother in law here in a suburb of Munich has three compost “Haufen” (piles) and she makes regular use of them. The vegies go into the Haufen and the crows like the meat.
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It really is hilarious. We put some spent meat (still on the bone) on the compost Haufen and the crows took it away within a few minutes, bones and all.
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The mother in law does have the benefit, though of having a very large back yard for Germany (1300 sqft, it’s the leftover of their family farm), and it will never be sold while we are alive.
Actually, it turns out that most species of earthworms are not native to the Northeast (and indeed, most areas that were covered by glaciers in the last ice age)… and humans’ introduction of worms to this area is actually doing tremendous damage to our forests.
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If you’re keeping them confined to the compost system, that’s one thing, and totally fine. Just try to keep them there, especially if you live near a forest.
thank you, you raise a very important issue. so far, i have not been able to get knowledgeable answers from local worm suppliers as to whether they use local or introduced species. the mantra with red wiggler producers is “they exist on every continent”. well, perhaps, but if that is only because of recent human introduction, we may have a problem? rest assured that my worms will stay on a balcony in teh city. i will have to think about how to make the ensuing compost worm and egg free before it leaves the building. probably drying it out will do the trick, but the search for knowledge continues…
That’s changing the world, er, one sheet at a time!
little changes in the bathroom like this and we might just have a Royal Flush!
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Oh, the things I do and say for the sake of progress…but every little bit helps. In the Diane Sawyer piece linked above are some amazing consumption facts. I can’t remember exactly how much paper we use over our lifetime but I think she said it amounts to just under 100 trees. There was another fun visual factoid that said the plastic used and not recycled in those ubiquitous water bottles could shrink wrap Texas…ANNUALLY.
So if you use 1 square, you will be getting your hands dirtier.
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Which means more hand washing- which means more electricity, which means more oil production.
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I mean, really, are you serious?
And I thank you for this opening which I was hoping for back when people were actually visiting this post. I’ll choose this one though which should be taken with the same grain of salt you should have read into this piece:
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If you’re this constipated, it shouldn’t be a problem to use all the toilet paper you need!
for the sake of our earth.
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What, are we suppose to wipe with one single ply sheet? Ewwww. Here’s a good green idea that can gain some political traction: toilet paper rationing! If the nop carbon footprint guy in NYC can go a year without wiping, why can’t everyone?
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On the other hand, maybe it would be a better idea to figure out how to make the Seventh Generation stuff in something other than the No. 7 grit option.
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you pull as many squares as you need, but you can’t pull the whole roll a la Garfield. đŸ™‚
to come out of the woodwork. Thanks for this!