Just a quick note on tonight's episode of Big Ideas for a Small Planet, which has a segment on Ford Model U concept car. It seems like each week this show deals with another car or group or idea we feature here on AutoblogGreen - if there's any show on TV right now that's paying more attention to green car issues, I'm not aware of it.

Each week, Big Ideas goes through three or four ideas on a topic. Tonight's episode (which airs at 9 pm PST on the Sundance Channel) is called "Paper or Plastic" and pretty much answers neither. At least, not your typical plastic materials. This is where the Model U comes in, in Idea 3: Recyclable Car.

Made with all kinds of plant-based materials, the Model U was intended to embody the spirit of the original Model T in a 21st century way (except that Ford actually sold the Model T). The fabric used on the seats, dash, steering wheel, headrests, door trim and armrests is an "eco-effective polyester." The canvas roof and carpet mats are a potential "biological nutrient" called polylactide. Then there's the corn in the tires and lots of soy foam in the seats. In the Big Idea show, we visit with Deborah Mielewski from Ford's plastics research department, whose team developed the environmentally conscious materials, Gerhard Schmidt, technical lead on the Model U (who says, "The Model U, first, is a dream. Clean, environmentally friendly, safe, and, for sure, fun to drive"), and David Wagoner, vehicle engineering at Ford, who was involved with the advanced green technologies. We also see, briefly, scientists testing new soy foam in the Ford lab.

The Model U is powered by a hydrogen ICE, but the show doesn't get into much more detail than to say its the same 2.3L I 4 engine as in the Ford Fusion, but it burns hydrogen and that it has a 300 mile range. And that's the Model U in like 5 minutes.

You can watch (for now) some clips of tonight's show here. Unfortunately, the Model U segment is not being streamed. But, just for you, we've got a clip of the car in action here. You can read more about the non-Model U segments of the show after the jump. There're quite interesting, just not car-related.

Thanks to Sundance for the screener DVDs.

[Source: Big Ideas for a Small Planet]

Not all episodes of Sundance's The Green programming block feature green vehicles, but when they do, they do. Tomorrow night (Tuesday, the 22nd), the Big Ideas for a Small Planet segment goes for a "Drive." And it looks like fun.

"Drive" follows the same breezy pace as the other Big Ideas episodes (like the first one, "Fuel"), with cool people talking about cool cars and all saying that the world can certainly become a better place. It's engaging and a good way to keep beating that "EVs are golf carts" stereotype (well, until we get to the NMG, anyway).

The four big ideas are as follows:

First, the electric sports car. This segment features – surprise, surprise – the Tesla Roadster. Man, that car is still so cool looking, even after seeing so many pictures and videos of over the last 10 months. Chelsea Sexton, of Plug In America, and David Friedman, of the Union of Concerned Scientists, give a condensed version of the last 100 years of the electric car and we also go on a visit to Tesla Motors. CEO Martin Eberhard introduces viewers to the car; and we tag along on a short ride and drive for people who've agreed to buy a Roadster. Phil, who I'm pretty sure is the same Tesla employee who drove me in the Roadster prototype last summer, takes some advance purchasers for a spin and we see "Who Killed the Electric Car?" director Chris Paine driving the Roadster. Scott Burns, the producer of An Inconvenient Truth, says the Roadster is the first car he's ever purchased without taking it for a test drive.

The second idea is high performance hybrids, and here we get to go 100 mph down the AMCI test track in a Lexus hybrid with Paul Williamsen, National Manager of the Lexus College. Williamsen's work is mostly training service technicians and he tells us that the LS 600h features a hydrocarbon absorber that holds onto hydrocarbon emissions until the catalytic converter is warm enough to process them. The Lexus hybrids aren't solely designed to reduce emissions, but more to increase power without adding emissions.

Idea three is the electric commuter car, here embodied as the NMG, what used to be known as the Sparrow. Dana Myers, founder of Myers Motors, Myers says that the average American spends four hours a year at the gas station, so plugging your car into your garage outlet at night saves time as well as money. He gives the camera crew a quick tour of the factory, and we see the engineers experimenting with a polymer lithium ion battery option in the NMG. It's not a 100 percent smooth, but they do get the tiny, three-wheeled NMG to zip with the new batteries. It sound like the NMG's range with these batteries might be between 50-80 miles, according to Myers.

There's more on the show, and a clip of the Tesla ride and drive after the break. Try not to be too jealous.

[Source: Sundance]

"A Crude Awakening" is not a documentary for the weak.

The folks over at the Sundance Channel were kind enough to send AutoblogGreen a screening copy of the documentary, which will be broadcast tomorrow Tuesday night (9 p.m. EST) as part of the premiere episode of The Green (see related story here). Obviously, they want me to say it's a good movie so that you all tune in and watch. I'll gladly say it's a good doc, but that's simply because it is. It puts a lot of the things we talk about here on the site into perspective in a watchable, entertaining and educational and somewhat frightening 85 minutes (longer with commercials).

The film was released theatrically last year, but didn't make quite as big a splash as "An Inconvenient Truth" or "Who Killed the Electric Car?" Still, it should be included in the same breath of those films for providing a way to understand the role oil - and cars and human behavior - plays in our lives and on the environment. From the opening mood setters – foreboding music behind people saying oil is the blood of the devil, the blood of the earth and the lifeblood of the economy – to the film's final call to action – making calls to urge elected representatives to help us move past oil – "A Crude Awakening" watches oil flow around the globe, from Venezuela to McCamey, Texas to Russia and into our homes.

(review continues after the jump)

Sundance's The Green premieres Monday and the folks who have been working hard to bring A Crude Awakening: The Oil Crash to your screens next week have slipped us three promos for the show. You can watch them edited together in the clip up above. They're about ethanol in Indy cars and biodiesel from waste cooking oil.

We also got a copy of the full first show to review, and we'll have our thoughts on the documentary on the final years of this non-renewable resource soon.

And, while digital distribution at least doesn't make for any paper waste, the entire promotion campaign is not as green as it might be, says Ecorazzi.

Related:

• Got a big idea for a short video? Submit it to Sundance for $10,000 and a Lexus lease
• Crude Awakening for Sundance Channel's new The Green documentary series

[Source: Sundance Channel]

The new Sundance Channel environmental programming block "The Green" is coming our way in a few weeks and Sundance wants potential viewers (which hey, might be you) to submit short video clips on the theme "What's the Big Idea?" Why would you do this? The winner gets $10,000 and a one-year lease on a new Lexus hybrid. The contest is open until the end of the month and after April 30 Sundance will put the 25 top videos to an online vote. The top five vote getters will then be ordered by "by a panel of environmental experts who will pick the winner; pieces will be judged on creativity, overall theme, feasibility and presentation."

For more details on the contest, you can read the press release after the jump (overwhelming number of exclamation mark alert). If you missed the earlier announcement about what The Green is, click here. Then you'll know whey I'm unhappy they haven't stopped using all capital letters to refer to THE GREEN.

[Source: K.C. Webster / Special Ops Media]

click to enlarge photo

What I like about the upcoming Sundance Channel documentary series THE GREEN: a prime-time TV look at energy, waste and solutions, brought to us by people who know how to make good filmed entertainment (Queer Eye, The Fog of War).

What I don't like about the upcoming Sundance Channel documentary series THE GREEN: That the promotional material keeps using all caps to refer to the show. They can use it. I won't.

What The Green is: a series of environmentally-themed shows that starts April 17th. The prime time, three-hour block (shows start at 9 p.m.) will feature at least two shows a night, Big Ideas For A Small Planet and then a documentary on that night's topic. Other, shorter pieces will air when appropriate (see the press release after the jump for full details).

The premiere evening's topic is fuel, and the documentary of the night is A Crude Awakening: The Oil Crash, directed by Basil Gelpke and Ray McCormack. The Big Ideas show will feature Joel Woolf, "alternative-fuel enthusiast and inventor of Veg Powered Systems, [who] drag races his truck with the vegetable oil from a fried-chicken tailgate party, while a one-woman, bio-diesel PR campaign in Prada shoes hooks up clients with diesel cars around the country, and an Indy 500 driver tests his Team Ethanol car at Daytona."

Sounds like my kind of show.

[Source: The Sundance Channel]