The head of the World Wildlife Fund has come out publicly in favor of the electrification of the world's transportation system. James Leape, director general of WWF International, has declared that cars need to get smaller, lighter and far more efficient. Leape also said that cars should be migrating to electric drive because it is more efficient than internal combustion engines. As an organization that supports preserving animal species, the WWF has a vested interest in helping to mitigate phenomena like climate change, deforestation and other environmental problems.

All the car-makers are working on a variety of electric drive vehicles using multiple technological approaches. There are of course multiple issues with all of these including cost, durability, range, etc. There is also, of course, the issue of producing electricity to power plug-in vehicles. Somewhere there's a chorus repeating the mantra that we need to work aggressively to develop sustainable methods of generating electricity.

[Source: Drive.com.au]

Nissan North America is teaming up with the World Wildlife Fund for the second year of the Nissan-WWF Environmental Leadership Program for college students. Each of the sixteen students will get a $5,000 prize and get to attend a summit in Washington and Nashville in June and then go on a research trip to Brazil. The students will participate in various volunteer activities to help them learn about environmental stewardship.

In August they will spend two weeks working with conservation scientists and visiting the Amazon rainforest. Extra renewable energy use and efficiency projects will help to offset the carbon emissions from the trip to Brazil. Nissan is providing a $1 million grant for the leadership program and to fund WWF conservation programs in the United States and Brazil. The Nissan press release is after the jump.

[Source: Nissan]