It's called the "Nano," and it's being hailed as the world's smallest and cheapest car. At roughly $2,000, the newest addition to the Tata Motors fleet has certainly caught the eye of India's growing middle class, and will probably help to boost the national economy a bit. But that's pretty much where the good news ends.

Whenever I visit Kolkata--the West Bengal site of the Singur factory, where the Nano will be built--I wake up in the mornings hacking. I have what I affectionately call "The Black Cough of Kolkata." It's due to the smog. The person-to-particle ratio here is so high that it's not even worth counting. Just imagine that every single one of the 14.8 million residents has his or her own unfiltered tailpipe to suck on every minute of the day, and you'll have some idea of what the air quality is like. Exaggerating? No, sadly, I'm not.

In addition to an exploding population, Kolkata has a massive car-density problem, with approximately 1,421 cars per kilometer and no emissions standards. Whether you're driving or walking, there is no escape from the smog (unless, ironically, you're in a sealed car). Ancient, dilapidated taxis and buses spew viscous clouds of dark gray soot every time they accelerate, causing severe irritation to the eyes, throat and lungs. To even entertain the idea of adding more pollution to this city, especially to make a profit, is nothing short of taking out a contract on the life of every last resident.

According to Ratan Tata, Chairman of the Tata Group, the Nano's design was inspired by the sight of an entire family crammed onto a tiny scooter--not an uncommon scenario in India's urban landscape. He thought that if he could build a car small enough and cheap enough for the lower middle class to afford, such families could get around in greater comfort and safety. But despite Mr. Tata's best intentions, the Nano may more prove more harmful than helpful, adding to what is already an unbearable level of smog.

A better option would be for the city to invest in public transportation. But even if we stick to the single-car-for-the-Indian-upwardly-mobile-sector argument, it would make more sense for the powerful and influential Mr. Tata to put his energies behind an electrically powered Nano. The car's small size is ideal for Kolkata's narrow, windy streets. The electric cars could be charged at simple "pumps" that could be easily installed as an addition to an existing structure. And the cost of charging the car would be cheaper for the user than the current cost of petrol.

Of course, the city's electrical infrastructure is in desperate need of an upgrade. Kolkata residents currently suffer nightly blackouts in what's called "load-shedding," as power is shifted from one neighborhood to another. In theory, the same neighborhood isn't supposed to be deprived of electricity several nights in a row, but it happens quite a lot.

Still, the cost of an upgrade to the city's power grid would be much less over time than a Beijing-style "clean up" of the constant, growing pollution. And the new petrol stations that will be built to accommodate the gas-powered Nano will only worsen the traffic and pollution problems--not to mention the fact that there isn't much space left to build them in.

The world over, people are attempting various solutions to environmental problems. Most are hard. This one isn't.

In an earlier post, NewsQuake covered the groundswell of support for California's Senate Bill 840 (SB 840), the Universal Healthcare Act. But that story is far from over. On August 11, the OneCareNow campaign hosted the biggest rally for universal healthcare in U.S. history. Several luminaries spoke in support of SB 840, which is cosponsored by State Senator Sheila Kuehl. Click on the first photo below to view the highlights of this historic gathering.


Among those speaking at the rally was actress Lily Tomlin, who delivered a routine in persona of her character "Ernestine" that was written expressly for the event. Click on the photo below to play video.

Since its release on July 29th, 2007, Michael Moore's documentary Sicko has created a nationwide buzz about universal health care. In the accompanying video, Netscape Anchor Alexia Prichard covers the action in Santa Clarita, CA, where a group of activists has been lobbying for the passage of Senate Bill 840, also known as The Universal Health Care Act.

Here is a link to a larger (640x480) downloadable version of the video.

I can't go in my lake. Apart from being man-made, it is continually man-damaged.

A few days ago I sat looking out over the lake and saw two men in a small motorboat approaching the bank by my dock. The man driving the boat sat behind a small 3-walled plexiglass enclosure while the other man stood in the bow. The bow-man was covered, head-to-toe, in a toned-down version of a biohazard suit, complete with hood and booties. Over his nose and mouth he wore a small contractor's mask and over his entire face wore a clear, welder-like plastic protector. In his rubber-gloved hands he held a hose, held it out at arm's length, so the stream of liquid that came from it spewed out and far away from the boat. From even my 50 yard distance I could see that the liquid was thick - viscous and brown – and streaming all up in my bank.

Later, I was told by a friend that the liquid was being sprayed on all the banks of the lake to kill the tall, unruly grass that had grown through the winter. "It blocks the view," said my friend, and added that if I was "really worried," I should check to see how much runoff from the neighboring golf course was making it's way into the lake. "THAT'S the stuff that'll kill ya," she said a few days later, as we walked her dog past a mother who's kids were splashing around in the water on the first hot day of this year.

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Today marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of Rachel Carson, author of the seminal and controversial work on the destruction of the environment, Silent Spring. To get some perspective on the meaning of this day and Ms. Carson's legacy, I sought out her biographer, Linda Lear:

"Silent Spring has been called many things over the past 45 years. For many, it was the book that began the environmental movement, the book which sounded the alarm over human kind's carelessness. To others it was a polemic which overstated the case for the damage caused by the use of synthetic chemical pesticides like DDT. The production of DDT was banned in the US in 1972, but it has always been manufactured and exported all over the world ever since."
-Linda Lear, Rachel Carson biographer

In her forward to the 2002 First Mariner Books edition of Silent Spring, Lear also wrote that one of Carson's greatest achievements was that she made clear to an unschooled populace the radical point that humans' biology was vulnerable. "Like the rest of nature... we too are permeable."

"Rachel Carson was a nature writer and ecologist whose lyric writing made science understandable to the general public during the Cold War years. She was accorded international fame for her 1951 book "The Sea Around Us" and because of it, the public listened to her as a voice of reason when, in 1962, she called for a re-examination of our misuse of chemical pesticides. Silent Spring was a book about death, our own and potentially all of nature's by a woman who was committed to the continuation of all life."
-Linda Lear

Long before the groundbreaking book was published, Carson knew what was coming. She felt it in her bones, and proved it with hard science, leaving all the generations to come with a road-map for how to stop it. Looking out over the lake that I will never swim in, no matter how hot the days get, I realize how pained she must have been, and how sad she would be today looking out at a world melting. Still, as Ms. Lear points out, she'd have enough hope to stand up and say something about it, as she did in 1963 when she testified before President Kennedy's Science Advisory Committee about the dangers of pesticides. The resulting report by the committee supported Carson's assertions and set the stage for the establishment of the EPA. Rachel Carson's was a voice for the ages the impact of which has never dimmed.

In New York City Eve Mosher is drawing a line – literally – on the streets of the city to indicate how far the rising water from melting polar ice caps will reach and what will be gone as a result. People she meets along the way ask her, desperately: "Here? Here too?" "Yes," she says, before explaining what they can do to help.

"Carson hoped that technology, eg. pesticides, would be used responsibility. She believed that the obligation to endure gave us the right to question government and the scientific establishment, and to ask not just whether a thing could be done, but whether it should be done. Her desire to perpetuate life is Carson's greatest legacy and it is the one we celebrate on her 100th birthday."
-Linda Lear

If she were alive, I know Rachel Carson would want me to do something about the crap that's being sprayed in my lake. And so today I'm on my way to the neighborhood association building. I'm dropping off a letter requesting a meeting about the state of the lake. My life is at stake. All of our lives are. We'll see what happens.

Documentary filmmaker Rob van Hattum's latest effort, Waste = Food, explores the concept of "cradle-to-cradle" environmentalism. First developed by celebrated environmental architect William McDonough and chemist Michael Braungart, this pioneering design philosophy envisions endless use and reuse of raw materials. Since Van Hattum's film recently premiered on Sundance Channel's The Green, this seemed like the perfect moment to have a chat with him.

Netscape: When did you first become interested in environmentalism?

Van Hattum: Quite a long time ago, actually. In 1972, when I was 17, there was a report released by a nongovernmental think tank called the Club of Rome. They argued that we would soon have a very polluted environment, and problems with energy and natural resources. We discussed the report at school and it got me rather worried. It was the first moment my mind was turned towards the environment and the impact man has on the planet.

The year after that, there was an oil embargo by the OPEC countries. As a result, we experienced government-mandated car-free Sundays in the Netherlands. I talked about the environment a lot, about our impact on the planet, and you could say I was kind of a nerd in the eyes of my friends. They always tried to convince me that science and technology were the cause of all the environmental evil. I tried to convince them that mankind itself was the problem, at least those who believe that you can use the oceans and the air as a sewage system for harmful products.

The National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has just released its predictions for the coming season: they anticipate 13-17 named storms, 7-10 hurricanes, and 3-5 major hurricanes. According to the NOAA statement:

"Experts at the NOAA Climate Prediction Center are projecting a 75 percent chance that the Atlantic Hurricane Season will be above normal this year--showing the ongoing active hurricane era remains strong. With the start of the hurricane season upon us, NOAA recommends those in hurricane-prone regions to begin their preparation plans."

Nowhere will this statement about preparedness have greater impact than in New Orleans. Ever since Hurricane Katrina hit in 2005, organizations in the area have been trying to do just that: get the city ready for whatever the new hurricane season has in store. While Congress and state officials in Louisiana discuss plans to bolster the wetlands to the east and south of the city--natural structures that will eventually act as organic storm force-reducing barriers--the once-maligned U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has been busy shoring up levees and installing new preventive systems.

One such system is a series of three remotely-operated hydraulic gates that have been installed at the mouths of the 17th Street Canal, the Orleans Avenue Canal, and the London Avenue Canal. These are the very canals whose levees failed during Hurricane Katrina. The idea is that the gates will halt any storm surge coming into the city from Lake Pontchartrain, and will give the pumps at each canal a chance to work the way they were supposed to during Hurricane Katrina. Back in August 2005, the storm surge flowed straight from the lake into the canals, putting so much pressure on the pump system that it was unable to cope with the inflow. Eventually the earthen levees along the canals collapsed under the pressure. With the gates in place, the pumps will be able to pump out any water in the low-lying areas of the city without simultaneously dealing with the surge from Lake Pontchartrain.

Also in place is a new early-warming system called SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisitions). The SCADA system involves a series of sensors that are placed along each canal, providing measurements of water level. In the event of storm surge from the lake, the SCADA system will alert monitors in a remote location and the decision will be made to close the gates.

While no man-made system can ever guarantee dominance over the whims of Mother Nature, these extra measures will at least provide the Crescent City with the fighting chance it didn't have in 2005. For an animated explanation of canal gates and pumps, see "Outfall Canal Closures & Pump Stations" on the website for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' Hurricane Protection System.