Could These Weird Ideas Save the Planet?

Dec. 4, 2008 -- "Hey DJ! Play that funky music!" might be one of the more unusual rallying cries for saving the planet. But the "Mini Sustainable Club" featured at the 12-day U.N. climate conference here has a purpose. Their disco show is one of many wacky ideas on display for cutting mankind's carbon footprint and adapting to the ravages of climate change.

Also on display are fog-catchers from Cape Verde, a model of a "no-waste city" with zero carbon emissions, hydrogen-powered cars, air conditioning driven by sea water, biofuels from algae and a solar station for drying sewage sludge.

They are some of 120 concepts, some of them already in operation, on show as the 192-nation U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) seeks to get the ball rolling for a new global climate change pact in a year's time.

Once inside the Dutch-made "club for two people," pounding music starts up and, as you dance, the spring-loaded floor converts your movements into electricity, setting off arrays of disco lights powered by your exertions.

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If you really go for it, a mirrored ball on the ceiling lights up.

"I don't know if it will be popular," one bemused dancer said as he emerged.

In a corner of the 75,500-square-foot exhibition hall is an orange pod, rather like a ski lift, housing a Polish inventor with a sky-high idea to "revolutionize" public transport in cities.

Similar to the planned ULTra (Urban Light Transport) pilot scheme at London's Heathrow airport, MISTER Ltd's pods, suspended 30-50 feet in the air, would each transport up to five or so passengers, whizzing them along a rail.

"If we replaced London's metro system with such a system we would be able to carry all of the metro traffic with only a quarter of the capacity for about a 20th of the cost ... and energy-wise about one-tenth," inventor Ollie Mikosza said.