Can an ATV be Green?
by Doug on March 10, 2008
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Verdier Solar VW
Somehow "green" has shed its hippy image and become hip, intelligent, even trendy. Verdier has done the same for the classic hippy ride—the VW bus. Not only does this camper look like a work of retro urban art, it's also got 2008 eco cred. The hybrid engine can run on diesel and electric. It sports a 40 watt, 12 volt solar panel. It's GPS and wireless
The greenneck boys over at WickedOutdoorsy unearthed this—a “green” ATV. Which begs us to ask you SustainAblers, can an ATV be green? Let us know what you think.
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Darwin Design
Simple. Fun. Meaningful. Whatever you think of Darwin Designs organic cotton t-shirts, which are made with low-impact water-based dyes, they get noticed on the street (or hiking trail). Each shirt features an endangered animal and a positive succinct message: “re-think big" (under a blue whale) or “live gently" (under a sea turtle), or, our favorite, a polar bear with the tagline "start global cooling." “Climate change is an issue we feel passionate about and this is an effective way to spread a global message on a local level,” says Darwin Designs co-founder Otto Pohl. “Every person out there wearing our shirts becomes a
Thoughts
Brook wrote:
March 10, 2008 at 1:23 pm
Dude - I’ve got a “green” ATV. I call it a bike.
More power to ‘em for trying, though. I guess a “green” ATV could be helpful for farm and ranch purposes. But, I wouldn’t be jumping on the bandwagon of one for recreation.
Otto Pohl wrote:
March 10, 2008 at 1:44 pm
My quick response about electric ATVs is that as long as the electricity is generated from wind or the sun, this is definitely a step in the right direction. That said, there are several problems with ATVs, and gas consumption is only one of them. First off, if the question is to ATV or not to ATV, avoiding the ’sport’ in the first place is definitely greener. There is still the production and disposal of the ATV and its battery. There is still the damage riding them does to mountains and trails. And then there is the whole mindset of plowing over the landscape on a thousand pounds of machine. Those concerns aside, however, if you really really want to ATV and you have a green electric source (a pretty big if), then this is definitely a step in the right direction.