I just finished watching a truly terrific Nova special, Car of the Future, with the thoroughly irrepressible Tom and Ray Magliozzi, known to their adoring public as Click and Clack from Car Talk, the NPR supershow. Along with the laughs, you get a look at lightweight materials to revolutionize car manufacturing , the same materials being used in the new Boeing Dreamliner, hybrids, plug-in electric cars, hydrogen fuel cell vehicles with the hydrogen produced by geothermal and hydropower, and discussion of the policies we need to get us to a post-gasoline society. See a preview here. The website for Car of the Future may be better than the show itself. It's got the footage, in-depth interviews, and open content so you can take clips for your own movie or other production.
Then, run out and get ZOOM: The Global Race to Fuel the Car of the Future, by two veteran writers for "The Economist," Iain Carson and Vijay V. Vaitheeswaran. I heard Vaitheeswaran speak recently at the "State of the Planet "08" conference and he was quite enthusiastic about the possibilities for clean car technology for the future.
Happy Earth Day!
