A love story about the world’s first electronic TukTuk!

I want to tell you a story that begins in India about ten years ago. The story revolves around an American entrepreneur and a method of transport very familiar with pretty much everyone in the whole of Asia: the TukTuk!

Our American entrepreneur – let’s call him Adam Rice, as that’s his name - was struck by the challenges that faced the cities in Asia he often visited. Besides the typical issues of sanitation, housing and clean drinking water, he recognized that one of the biggest challenges facing cities like Mumbai and Bangkok was an effective means of transportation for its growing populations. And like most tourists and locals he loved the convenience of travelling around in a Tuk-Tuk. He then got thinking about the challenges in his own adopted country of Germany, and what lie ahead for the future. He realised that the TukTuk could solve many of the problems facing our increasingly crowded streets, but not in its current form, as however loveable, they are actually quite inefficient users of fuel and cause significant levels of air and noise pollution.  So what was the solution? 100% Electric motors of course! So fast forward a few years and we have the first eTukTuks hitting the streets of Europe.  Due to transportation regulations they are not (yet!) in use as taxis, instead they are used daily for tourism and special events. But they are an alternative way that the general public can experience first-hand the joys of electric driving and dispel all the myths. After one overnight charge the Tuk is good to drive for 85-100km depending on weather and driving conditions. Not bad eh. And before all the super-greenies out there start asking – yes the Tuks in Berlin are all powered by green electricity! In Germany we are lucky enough to be able to choose from four genuine providers of renewable, non-nuclear energy: Naturstrom, Lichtblick, Greenpeace Energy and EWS Schönau. 

In Berlin our eTukTuks are just one part of a transport revolution that seems to be taking place here at the moment. Carsharing schemes are really taking off and “cars-to-go” – even electric ones - can be found on every street corner. We also have a super public transport system and well-used cycle paths. However Berlin still isn’t meeting the EU standards on pollution despite laws requiring old cars to be removed from the roads and the creation of an “environmental zone” in the city centre.  So there is still a great deal of work to be done - which isn’t easy, especially when the German Chancellor is so influenced by the extremely strong German car lobby and exerts her power to weaken Europe-wide emissions targets. 

But meanwhile, back in happy 100% electric TukTuk land, we are doing the best we can do, to assist the long –overdue electric transportation revolution.

So where is the love story? Well, basically anyone who comes into contact with our eTuks falls INSTANTLY in love with them. They look great, sound great and smell great so what is not to love?  

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This is a guest post.


Katie Griggs is Operations Manager at eTukTuk Gmbh. She is also Campaign Director for 10:10 Deutschland.

Environmental Asbestos Exposure

There are six different forms of asbestos that can be found naturally in soil and rocks around the world.Although asbestos is not dangerous when left undisturbed in the ground, mining or removal of the mineral can release asbestos fibers into the air, where environmental exposure can lead to serious illnesses such as malignant mesothelioma cancer and lung cancer.

Some types of asbestos, such as amosite and crocidolite, are usually found in their natural form in foreign countries like Africa.

However, environmental asbestos exposure in the United States is more common than many people understand, with rocky areas and mountain ranges being the typical spots of natural asbestos deposits. Large deposits of various forms of asbestos have been found in California, in the Rocky Mountains, in the Kootenai Mountains in and around Montana and also in other U.S. national parks and forests.

Unfortunately, many people unknowingly stir up naturally occurring asbestos while hiking and picnicking. Vacation activities such as four-wheeling through asbestos-contaminated hills can stir up the asbestos dust and cause inadvertent exposure. Once asbestos fibers are airborne, even walking through the area can lead to inhalation or ingestion of the fibers.

Although these fibers are natural, they are hardly harmless.

The six types of asbestos are labeled as carcinogens, and hundreds of other asbestiform minerals are thought to cause similar health problems. Illnesses that have been directly linked to environmental asbestos exposure include mesothelioma, lung cancer and asbestosis. Some cases of other cancers, such as ovarian cancer and laryngeal cancer, also have been linked to asbestos exposure.

To help reduce the chance that you are environmentally exposed to asbestos, you should take extra precaution while engaging in any outdoors activities in areas where asbestos is a known threat.

These are areas include Coalinga, California, Sall Mountain, Georgia and Libby, Montana. Be sure to heed any asbestos warnings posted in state parks and recreational areas, and avoid disturbing any rock or mineral deposits where asbestos may occur.

Another environmental exposure to be aware of is that of a damaged or imploded building. We've all seen on TV: hotels, office towers, parking garages, old sports arenas and civic center’s get imploded. One minute they are there, 30 seconds later they have disappeared in a carefully engineered pile of rubble.

All good, except: Old buildings have asbestos in them, and dust from these implosions is not good to breathe in.

The safety lesson, then, is not to be a spectator for or cheerleader of these implosions and also to stay away from the rubble afterward. Unless the building was abated before it was ruined, asbestos fibers are in the air and can be breathed in.

Pushing Toxic Water Uphill: Chevron's Losing Battle in Ecuador Pollution Case

Chevron is back up against the ropes after a United States federal court judge denied a bid made by the corporation to stop Ecuadorian plaintiffs from collecting a damages award of $18 billion. Federal court judge Lewis Kaplan was asked to freeze assets owned by the plaintiffs until the result of a fraud lawsuit against the Ecuadorians was known. Unfortunately for Chevron, the bid was denied.

Adding to that, just a few days before the bid to freeze assets was made, Chevron was hit with one more nail in the coffin. An Ecuadorean appeal court upheld the $18 billion judgement over the oil damage in the county’s Amazon region. If the fraud lawsuit against the Ecuadorian plaintiffs fails, the oil giant has just one more option left, and that’s to make an appeal to Ecuador’s Supreme Court.

What caused the polution?

The exact circumstances of the pollution in question happened under Texaco, which has been part of Chevron Corporation since 2000. Texaco developed and operated the Lago Agrio oil field in the country from 1972 up until 1993, and during that time it is alleged that they did not dispose of industrial waste safely. It has been claimed that Texaco released up to 18 billion gallons of produced water into the Amazon rainforest, leaving a toxic trail that damaged vegetation, killed wildlife, and caused a variety of sicknesses in the local indigenous population. An environmental audit of the area pressured Texaco and Petroecuador, the two companies that extracted oil from the Lago Agrio oil field, to fund a $40 million remediation program from 1990 onwards. In 1998 a scientific team took water and soil samples only to find that around half of the samples analysed still had unsafe levels of petroleum hydrocarbon in them.

Action taken against Chevron

After years and years of campaigning, the Ecuadorian people finally managed to bring a case against Chevron in 2003. 30,000 Ecuadorean people were responsible for creating enough pressure and finding enough money to take on the multi-national corporation, and it paid off 8 years later. On the 15th of February 2011, an Ecuadorian court fined the oil company $8.6 billion for polluting the Amazon rainforest and the consequences of the damage. It was claimed during the lawsuit that local cancer rates increased, and crops and livestock were lost to the pollution.

The penalty rose to $9.5 billion dollars once an additional 10 per cent for reparations was included, but the total sum requested by Ecuadorian plaintiffs ended up being $27 billion. The court granted $18 billion, and the result of the case set a precedent, because it was the first instance of indigenous people suing a multinational corporation in a court located within the country the pollution actually happened in. Environmental activists celebrated and saw it as a start to charges being brought against other companies that pollute developing countries without punishment.

Chevron fights back

Chevron has opposed the fine since it was imposed, and filed a lawsuit against the Ecuadorian plaintiffs for fraud. The corporation believes that they have cleaned up their part of the damage to the rainforest, and they are being charged too much for the damages that have been claimed against them. Chevron has claimed that fraud and corruption have been used by the Ecuadorian plaintiffs, and the racketeering lawsuit they filed in New York in 2011 has yet to be decided.

This is not the first time that Chevron has been accused of illegal pollution, and they have even broken laws in America concerning pollution, namely the Clean Air Act. Other notable incidents were the 2002 oils spills in Angola that resulted in a claim for $2 million by the government of Angola for the damage. Only last year Chevron were prohibited from activities in Brazil after over 400,000 litres of oil were leaked into the ocean off the coast of Rio de Janeiro. The legal act that is being brought against Chevron in the Brazil case is demanding that $10.6 billion is paid in damages.

The controversy over Chevrons actions in Ecuador and whether they have been treated unfairly has been debated many times, but perhaps this new ruling is the beginning of the end to the case. What is certain is that no amount of money can turn the clock back and make good the damage done to the Amazonian rainforest.

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This is a guest post.

Olivia Lennox is a green freelancer from London. Normally she'll be extolling the virtues of tempurpedic products or the latest organic soaps, but she has her finger on the pulse of international environmental law too.