The federal government handed over the keys to a handful of electric vehicles it recently purchased. The 116 cars are the first electric vehicles to be purchased by the U.S. government for the federal fleet. They will be distributed to 20 agencies, including the U.S. Department of Energy and Department of Defense, in five cities across the country. The Electric Vehicle program "is the next big step" in the government's adoption of advanced vehicle technologies. It furthers the administration's goal of putting 1 million advanced vehicles on the road by 2015 and it represents a significant targeted investment in the next generation of automotive technology (Los Angeles Times, 5/24/11).

A group of attorneys representing children and young adults began to file legal actions this month in every state and the District of Columbia in an effort to force government intervention on climate change. The courtroom ploy was backed by activists looking for a legal soft spot to advance the cause of climate change, which has stumbled in the face of stiff congressional opposition and a skeptical U.S. Supreme Court. The goal is to have the atmosphere declared for the first time as a "public trust" deserving special protection. That's a concept previously used to clean up polluted rivers and coastlines, although legal experts said they were uncertain it could be applied successfully to climate change (New York Times, 5/4/11).

Is comedy on climate change an antidote to the obstacles impeding improved public understanding? For one thing, it can get people otherwise not inclined "into the room," says one stand-up comedian \, who points also to other advantages. Humor just may be the silver bullet, the key to unlocking the communication brick walls standing in the way of that more informed citizenry so critical in a democracy. After all, not much else has worked so well that humor should be denied its opportunity (Yale Forum on Climate Change & The Media, 5/18/11).

New research suggests being informed of one's environmental footprint can have the opposite of the intended effect. Newly published research suggests that for many people - perhaps most - the receipt of such data may produce the opposite result. "Only people who had invested their self-esteem in environmentalism - a strong form of commitment - reacted to negative environmental-footprint feedback by engaging in a pro-environment behavior," said the study's author. "Others were less likely to engage in a pro-environmental behavior after negative feedback" (Miller-McCune, 5/2/11).

Denmark earns the biggest share of its national revenue from producing windmills and other clean technologies and the United States is rapidly expanding its clean-tech sector, but no country can match China's pace of growth, according to a new report. China's production of green technologies has grown by a remarkable 77 percent a year. "The Chinese have made, on the political level, a conscious decision to capture this market and to develop this market aggressively," said an economist (AP, 5/8/11). 

Berlin has announced plans to drive up the number of electric cars in Germany to one million by 2020, touting financial incentives worth two billion euros by 2013. Chancellor Angela Merkel proposes an ambitious goal: increasing the number of electric cars in Germany from just a handful to a million in less than a decade. Not only would such a feat give the country's green credentials a major boost, but - perhaps more importantly in the eyes of the chancellor - it would also help Germany's vital car industry grab a slice of the growing electric car market (Der Spiegel, 5/17/11).

India, Asia's third-largest energy consumer, may be able to produce electricity from the sun as cheaply as from coal and other fossil fuel-based power plants by 2017. India may install three times as much solar capacity as the government intends by 2022 if sun-powered electricity is able to match the cost of conventional power, a point referred to as grid parity, said the lead author of a new solar report. "We are heading for grid parity and it's just a question of when," said the author (Bloomberg, 5/16/11).

Waste pickers go door to door, collecting throwaway materials from houses and sorting out the recyclable material. In Delhi, India's largest city, waste pickers reduce greenhouse gas emissions by nearly 1 million tons a year, according to a Delhi-based non-governmental agency. Globally, there are estimated to be 15 million waste pickers working in developing countries. Although they reduce energy use and related emissions through recycling, the fruits of their labors are often ignored. The Cooperative Housing Foundation is attempting to turn their unofficial business into a professional market (New York Times, 5/16/11).