Making electric cars safe and sound, By Matthew Knight, for CNN

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Making electric cars safe and sound, By Matthew Knight, for CNN

ELVIN is testing a variety of sounds which are designed to make electric cars safer in an urban environment

London, England (CNN) -- They may be cleaner than their gas-guzzling cousins, but manufacturers are increasingly concerned that electric cars' near-silent motors could pose a problem for pedestrians navigating city streets.
The safety issue is spurring on UK researchers to test-drive a range of artificial sounds which could see the traditional sound of the combustion engine being replaced by the sound of, among other things, space invaders.
Using a specially built electric van called ELVIN (Electric Vehicle with Interactive Noise) researchers at Warwick University's WMG (formerly Warwick Manufacturing Group) are finding out what noises alert pedestrians efficiently and without annoyance.
Click here to evaluate the sounds for yourself
Using the audio engineering expertise of NoViSim and EC Tunes, WMG has created six separate sounds which have been programmed into the van.
People are then asked to give their opinions on the sound of the van as it travels around the university campus.
"Sound not only alerts people to the presence and direction of a vehicle, it also indicates the type of vehicle and whether it is stopping or accelerating," says Paul Jennings, head of automotive research at WMG.

Jennings anticipates that the sounds used for electric cars will be tailored to the type of model.
"The sounds for, say, a sports car, saloon or a city runaround will probably need to be different," Jennings says.
"But the crucial thing is that they need to be safe and environmentally friendly."
Furthermore, creating new sounds is also an opportunity for automakers to convey other messages, Jennings says.
"You can imagine that manufacturers would be very excited about doing something with sound that could be personalized."
Sounds, he says, enable manufacturers to "portray messages about the brand and quality," and "help form part of [the owner's] relationship with it."
Jennings and his team at WMG have worked closely with auto manufacturers for several years now, but mostly fine-tuning interior noise in prestige cars.
This project, Jennings says, is more of "a blank sheet of paper" which presents "a significant challenge."
The pilot study will be followed by a longer, more detailed, period of research, simulating electric car sounds alongside a range of other vehicles.
The prospect of thousands of silent electric vehicles hitting city streets is already occupying the minds of legislators on both sides of the Atlantic.
A bill -- "Pedestrian Safety Enhancement Act of 2009" -- is currently at committee stage in the U.S. Congress, examining if there is a need for minimum sound levels on motor vehicles. The European Union is also considering similar legislation.
Research coming out of North America is already flagging up safety issues with electric car noise, Jennings says. But until guidelines -- if any -- are set down in law, he says he can't be sure how electric cars may end up sounding.
It's still early days, but auto manufacturers are already looking to take the lead in what is predicted to be a highly lucrative market.
Earlier this year, David Jackson, electric vehicle project manager at Nissan UK, told UK newspaper The Times that the company's electric Leaf model could be equipped with a "Star Wars noise" to alert pedestrians.
In Japan, Toyota has already begun selling a noise-making device which can be fitted to its best-selling hybrid Prius model. It also plans to sell the device, which emits a humming sound, in other markets including the U.S.

Arctic species under threat, report warns By Matthew Knight for CNN

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Arctic species under threat, report warns By Matthew Knight for CNN

London, England (CNN) -- Polar bears clinging to melting ice sheets have become one of the most frequently used images to portray the perils of climate change.
But a new report by the U.S. Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) and UK-based Care for the Wild International (CWI) is bringing attention to the predicament of other equally endangered Arctic species.
Seventeen Arctic animals are highlighted in "Extinction: It's Not Just for Polar Bears."
Shaye Wolf, lead author and climate science director of the CBD told CNN: "The plight of the polar bear due to global warming is very well known and familiar. But many other Arctic species are suffering a similar fate -- from plankton all the way to the great whales."
The impacts of climate change are "unfolding far more rapidly in the Arctic than any other area on the planet" threatening its ecosystem, the report said.
A 2009 study by Donald K. Perovich and Jacqueline A Richter-Menge -- "Loss of Sea Ice in the Arctic" -- reported that the sea ice extent in 2007 was one million square miles below the average figure recorded between 1979 and 2000.
This, and other data suggests, say scientists, that summer sea ice could completely disappear in the Arctic by 2030.
The ice retreat is already spelling trouble for marine mammals like the Pacific walrus and the harp seal.
Pacific walruses, like many of the mammals in the report, are sea ice dependent says Wolf, with many having already suffering population declines.
"As we speak, there are 10 to 20,000 walruses holed up on Alaskan Arctic coastline. And that is attributable to sea ice loss," Wolf says.
"Walruses need sea ice for resting because they can't swim continuously. When they lose that sea ice, especially moms and calves, they are forced to come to shore -- where calves are very vulnerable to be trampled in stampedes."
Last year, Wolf says the stampede claimed 131 young walruses.
The number was even higher off the Russian coast in 2007 where several thousand calves died when around 40,000 walruses were pushed ashore.
Ocean acidification -- caused by increased uptake of carbon dioxide -- is happening more quickly in the Arctic than in warmer waters, says Wolf.
Shell-building marine creatures like the sea butterfly (Clione limacina) are particularly vulnerable to acidification.
Their loss would be potentially devastating for other species.
On land, the Arctic fox -- found on the southern edges of the Arctic tundra -- is facing "myriad threats from climate change," including shrinking sea ice and tundra, declines in lemming prey and increased competition from the larger, more dominant red fox -- which is edging north as temperatures rise.
All the animals in the report are at risk of extinction due to climate change says Wolf.
"What is going on in the Arctic isn't something that we can consider completely remote from ourselves. Actually, it's a fantastic barometer of what is going to happen in the rest of the world," CWI's Rebecca Taylor told CNN.
"The Arctic is ground zero for climate change and we're already pushing many species towards extinction. The key to preventing their loss is reducing our greenhouse gas emissions -- specifically carbon dioxide -- to a level of 350ppm or below. That is a level many leading scientists have called for to restore Arctic sea ice," Wolf said.