None of us need ever buy gas again.

Last year, Electric-car maker and distributor ZAP said today it agreed to acquire Zhejiang Jonway Automobile Co. Ltd., a Chinese maker of electric vehicles. Zap said the move will expand its distribution network and give it access to the Chinese market where demand for electric vehicles, particularly among consumers, is growing rapidly.

The Santa Rosa, Calif., company says it has sold more than 117,000 electric vehicles in 75 countries since 1994. Most of its sales are to military, government and corporate fleets. The company also makes electric motorcycles, scooters and all-terrain vehicles. For U.S. car shoppers the acquisition should eventually result in more choices as tthe electric-car market develops here... [Read More]

With a few solar panels on your house, and a normal three prong, 110-volt, extension cord, you never need gas again.

Game The Future

Reality is broken, says Jane McGonigal, of the Institute for the Future, and we need to make it work more like a game.


Jane insists that if we empowered people to change the world, and rewarded them as today's video games do, then they would work hard to build a cooperative team and solve the problems of the world. Can that be true?

The problem is that unlike the game-world, in the 'real world' we don't make the rules ... or do we?

What are laws, but rules of the game? So, why don't we work together to solve the worlds problems just like we solve puzzles in 'World of Warcraft'? The answer is obvious, we don't share the same goals. We compete with our peers and create the very problems that we need to solve. Infinite complexity defies our ability to survive, much less create meaning from the chaos of global conflicts. Besides, in real life most of us are not allowed to kill, and none get multiple lives.

But just imagine, if you still can, a world where we could trust others. Where shared goals and commitment actually bound us in a tight 'SOCIAL FABRIC', and we all had hope and courage, an 'URGENT OPTIMISM' that we could successfully create our future. Wouldn't all of us work together in 'BLISSFUL PRODUCTIVITY' to achieve a world with 'EPIC MEANING'?

With the scope and complexity of the problems ahead we need a world of heros, and I believe we have one. If everyone could be 'SUPER EMPOWERED' to change the world, we might survive. Check out the solutions at SuperStruct and Evoke.

The case for Collaborative Consumption

"Sharing is something you only do with people you trust. To bad you don't trust anyone." - Rachel Botsman (HOT!) challenges you to collaborate.

Are you ready to wake up?

1. Reduce.
2. Reuse.
3. Repair.
4. Re-purpose.
5. Recycle.
6. Redistribute.

"You need the hole, not the drill"

Swap.com

"FIXING THE FUTURE"

"Do people exist to serve the economy, or does the economy exist to serve people?"

Watch this short interview with David Korten and begin to dream again.

Watch the full episode. See more NOW on PBS.

Watching PBS NewsHour on KPBS Channel 11 last night, I caught a glimpse of something absolutely AMAZING! In a clip from NOW with David Brancaccio.

We are talking about rebuilding community.

"Creating wealth within the community requires life values."

We need to get people engaged in their local economy. The power resides in Wall Street, not Main Street, wall street only recognizes FINANCIAL Values.

Alone we can not change the world, but we are not alone. Eighty communities around the USA and Canada, connecting 22,000 businesses and organization, growing exponentially. The potential for a global transformation of the economy is at hand.

"There are two competing paths of 'globalization' one is about CORPORATE Power, the other is about PEOPLE Power. They are diametrically opposed to each other."

If we are we going to evolve our society with the speed necessary to bring our population in balance with the resources and environment of the planet, we need to share our ideas and our knowledge freely.

Business must make a "LIVING RETURN", living owners within living enterprises with the goal of serving community. The real issue is not JOBS, its LIVELIHOOD. The less we are dependent upon the money system, the more we are in control of our lives.

• 1) What is the purpose of the economy?


• 2) What are you doing, today, to create an economy with that purpose?


• 3) How do we create the political power to put Main Street over Wall Street?

Join the Society for Media Justice to help create a Sustainable Future, in San Diego.

HomeSTAR - Why Haven't You Had an Energy Audit?

The proposed HOME STAR energy retrofit program is the focus of a report aired this weekend on NPR’s Weekend Edition, in which reporter Christopher Joyce follows a crew from Masco Home Services’ WellHome division as they conduct an energy audit at a home in suburban Washington, D.C.

The report delivers a solid introduction to Home Performance and the long-term benefits of investing in whole-house retrofit work, then concludes with a convincing summary of the economic logic behind HOME STAR:

Some states, like New York, already pay homeowners for retrofits. So did President Obama’s stimulus plan last year. But Jeff Genzer of the National Association of State Energy Officials says the stimulus money was mostly for low-income families. HOME STAR is for all homeowners.

“And it’s really targeted to getting the money in the hands of underemployed building contractors,” Genzer says. Indeed, HOME STAR advocates claim that the $6 billion could create 160,000 new jobs in the flagging building sector.

Genzer adds that small-scale-efficiency programs are cheaper than building new nuclear plants or big wind farms. And homes are a fat target for savings — buildings use 40 percent of the country’s energy. But caulk and insulation aren’t very sexy either.

“Is it easier for a politician to cut a ribbon in front of a nuclear power plant than it is in front of a house that’s been weatherized?” he asks. “Well, maybe.”

Listen to the full report online:

"Cash for Caulkers" isn't just a good idea. It is the first step in transforming our economy over to renewable energy. It means jobs, and NO NEW POWERPLANTS! Weatherize and reduce your utility bill, better yet, make your building ZERO-NET Energy, then add renewable energy production, and power your car on the sun.

The US Gulf Cost is in Cardiac Arrest

Six months ago, the Deepwater Horizon oil rig blew up and sank in the Gulf of Mexico. The initial explosion grabbed the nation's attention, but few imagined what was to come. As the oil spread, writer Terry Tempest Williams felt compelled to bear witness to the devastation and share the stories of those most affected.


The amount of oil and dispersant chemical contamination is unknown and causing long term health problems for the people and the animals. The economy and the wildlife are toxic. The Cajun and Creole  people are starving.


Listen to TOTN: 

Offshore Wind Power

Google and financial firm Good Energies have agreed to invest heavily in a proposed $5 billion transmission backbone for future offshore wind farms along the eastern seaboard, the NYT reports today in an above-the-fold front pager. They will each take on 37.5 percent of the equity portion of the first-of-its-kind project and are expected to bring in additional investors. As it currently stands, the two companies will likely need to front about $200 million apiece just for the first phase of construction.

DETAILS - Trans-Elect hopes to begin construction on the project in 2013. The Maryland-based transmission-line company estimates that the initial phase - stretching 150 miles from northern New Jersey to Rehoboth Beach, Del. - will cost $1.8 billion and could go into service by 2016. The rest would not be finished until early next decade.

NYT: 'Industry experts called the plan promising, but warned that... it was bound to face bureaucratic delays and could run into unforeseen challenges, from technology problems to cost overruns....The system's backbone cable, with a capacity of 6,000 megawatts, equal to the output of five large nuclear reactors, would run in shallow trenches on the seabed in federal waters 15 to 20 miles offshore, from northern New Jersey to Norfolk, Va. The notion would be to harvest energy from turbines in an area where the wind is strong but the hulking towers would barely be visible.'