What Matters This Week: RAV4 Goes Electric, Mt. Everest Melts

Less of Mt. Everest to love. Image Credit: Yale Environment 360

This is David’s summary of the week’s news for the Matter Network. To see the original, or post your comments, go here.

$200 Million Buys a Lot of Nutty Ideas: General Electric and its deep-pocketed friends went all X-Prize this week and announced $200 million in rewards for suggestions to help generate more power and improve the grid. Among the entrants so far: energy orchards and solar rocks.

‘Toyotla’ Plans an Electric RAV4: Toyota and Tesla said they’ll resuscitate an electric version of the popular small SUV. Meawhile, GM sought to quell range anxiety in the electric Chevy Volt by offering a giant warranty.

Meat-Eaters: Be Very Scared. For his next trick, superstar scientist Pat Brown will make you stop eating meat whether you like it or not. “Eating one 4-ounce hamburger is equivalent to leaving your bathroom faucet running 24 hours a day for a week,” he said. “We can’t go on like this.”

Barack’s Beloved Batteries: President Obama visited a battery plant in Holland, MI — his fourth such visit since taking office — as signs emerged that the stimulus bill is making the U.S. more competitive. The funding supports nine battery plants under construction and might assist the U.S. capture 40 percent of the world battery market by 2015.

Image Credit: USDA

Everest Shrinks: Mountain photographer David Breashears compared historical photos of Mt. Everest to what he sees through his own lens, and was startled at the result: The surrounding glaciers are melting fast, as is the ice on Everest itself.

Take that, Icarus: Quick on the heels of last week’s record-breaking manned solar flight, the unmanned Zephyr flew for seven days and isn’t even close to coming down. Perhaps someday we’ll even have a hybrid jet.