14 DAY TRIAL // Not long ago, we reported on how high-placed people attending this year's Olympic Games in London would be driven around in hydrogen-fueled taxis, supposedly to make a statement about the need to cut down on our society's dependence on harmful fossil fuels.
However, it now seems that paradox has stricken: while is it indeed true that these environmentally-friendly taxis commissioned for the Olympic Games have virtually no ecological footprint, the people in charge of keeping them “afloat” failed to properly look into how these vehicles would be refueled.
Thus, when their allocated charging station near the Olympic Arena broke down, these supposedly green-oriented cars had to be taken all the way to Swindon to be recharged.
Naturally, this was done using diesel trucks which, as we all know, cause a considerable amount of pollution.
Seeing how this round trip extended over a distance of about 130 miles (approximately 210 kilometers), we can only speculate that whatever harmful emissions were spared by using these taxis in London were more than made up for by the diesel trucks which took these cabs to their newly-appointed charging station.
Businesses Green informs us that, as part of the HyTEC (Hydrogen Transport for European Cities) project, a new charging station will be made available before the end of the Olympic Games at London's Heathrow Airport.
According to the same source, the hydrogen-fueled buses which were brought to London to help ordinary folk get around in an environmentally-friendly way also found themselves affected by this unfortunate incident.
Given the fact that 2012's Olympic Games are presumed to push for sustainable development and help raise awareness with respect to environmental protection, we hope that people will overlook this minor drawback and not forget that such hydrogen-fueled vehicles can indeed make a difference when it comes to cutting down on global carbon emissions.