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Water car

Today is the International Day for Biological Diversity.

Celebrated every year on May 22, it's a day on which we're all encouraged to focus on the role biodiversity plays in our lives.

In recognition of 2013 being the United Nations designated International Year of Water Cooperation, this year's International Day for Biological Diversity focuses on water.

As is explained on their website: “This year's theme speaks to the important role of biodiversity and ecosystems in providing for water security, and therefore for sustainable development.

“Water sustains all life on Earth. The ecosystems of our world, but particularly forests and wetlands, ensure that clean water is available to human communities...Biodiversity is here to help, as a sustainable solution, let's [let] the world know about it!”

I wondered how we motorists could possibly highlight the importance of water on this International Day for Biological Diversity. My initial instinct was to research ways motorists could, perhaps reduce their water usage. That, however, proved to be a dead end. You can endeavour to use less water in your car, but anyone will tell you that that's a sure-fire way to ensure battery failure.

So instead, I started to look into the relationship between motorists and water. And in doing so, I discovered that there really is such a thing as water-powered cars!


Water-Powered Cars

Water-powered cars (or water-fuelled cars) have something of a tarnished history. Whilst the idea that cars might be powered by water alone has been the subject of no small number of international patents, articles and news reports, many of the claims have been found to be incorrect. Indeed, some cases were later discovered to be little more than fronts for investment fraud.

The central idea behind each of these cases is that energy may be extracted from water. Many of the theses reason that water is fully oxidised hydrogen, and hydrogen is a high-energy, combustible substance.

It is possible to split water into its constituent components – hydrogen and oxygen – using a process called electrolysis. However, more energy would be required to effect the split than could ever be produced through burning the extracted hydrogen. Indeed, the whole idea that water alone could power a car violates the first and/or second laws of thermodynamics. It's a theoretical dead-end.

Yeah. Try telling that to waterpoweredcar.com.

An actually water-powered car?

Visit their website and you see an obviously fake image of an old two-seat racing car apparently skimming over the surface of a lake. That's not a water-powered car. That's a car that's powering over water.

Nonetheless, the text below reads:

“As ridiculous as it seems & hard to believe, we could all be running our cars from pure H20! Together we could heal the Ozone. Stop fighting over Oil under the sand. Best of all take the grip off around our necks at the gas pumps! You can't get this information on T.V, you got to learn it for yourself.”

Already we can see that these people take as much liberties with grammar as they do with science.

The remainder of the site is a mess of spelling errors, religious fanaticism (the experimental dune buggy that apparently runs on “pure H20” is called “The WORLD famous JESUS CHRIST is Lord Dune Buggy”) and insane conspiracy theories involving shady multinational conglomerates and mysterious deaths.

In short, then, to spend an evening immersing yourself in their crazy ideas is a great way to indulge in the sort of entertainment that's only possible on certain corners of the internet. It's pure comedic gold:

“You will EVER [sic] hear about this on TV. You have to get the information here or YOUTUBE. Man will evolve. God wants us to have FREE energy, someday we will see this, if we survive as a race. The elite wants US all dead, or their slaves.”

The sad thing is, the idea of free energy is beautiful and perfectly in keeping with the spirit of International Day for Biological Diversity.

Regrettably, if there is a low-cost alternative to petrol, diesel and oil out there, no matter what the crazy religious lunatics insist, we won't find it in water.

Still. What better way to spend the rest of the 2013 International Day for Biological Diversity than through wrenching as much amusement as you can from the ramblings of the misguided?

Image via jared422_80/Flickr

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