Originally published July 3 2005
World Expo demonstrates ecologically sound future
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
The 2005 World Expo, running through Sept. 25 outside Nagoya, Japan, is a showcase of new technologies from around the world, and Wired News reports a big part of the exhibit is an ecologically friendly future where clean, renewable energy sources are the norm.
The expo, expected to draw 15 million visitors, continues a long tradition of World's Fairs as showcases for new technological frontiers.
Toyota Motor, based near the expo and a major sponsor of the $3 billion event, developed a convoy of next-generation vehicles that meander, driverless, through the 427-acre site that was -- and will remain after the event -- a nature park.
Zero-emissions buses, combining the Toyota Prius' hybrid technology with hydrogen fuel cells, shuttle between the 130-plus country and corporate pavilions clustered into a half-dozen "global commons" areas.
At Mitsubishi's pavilion, a special-effects theater combines images, mirrors and sounds in a hexagonal space, while at Japan's own pavilion, a 360-degree, all-sky spherical theater surrounds viewers in sea and sky imagery.
Japan Railway shows off its superconducting, magnetically levitated bullet train that reaches top speeds of 361 mph, which will require even faster shutter speeds for Japan's ubiquitous Mount Fuji tourism photos.
The company's Futurecast System photographs visitors' faces and renders the images within minutes into the characters of computer-generated sci-fi shorts.
At Toyota's wind-powered pavilion, a troupe of robots plays jazz instruments in a 30-minute show, while humans lumber around bioplastic-carpeted corridors from the clamshell seats of bipedal I-foot robots.
Dozens of the most practical service robots, poised for market by 2015, are showcased at the pavilion run by NEDO, Japan's quasi-governmental agency responsible for developing industrial, environmental and energy-conservation technologies.
Nepal has recreated an elaborate Buddhist temple to display Himalayan life and culture, and Switzerland houses a 30-foot mountain ringed by thematic rooms.
(The United States screens a multimedia presentation on Benjamin Franklin to honor the innovator's 300th birthday). At the NGO exhibits, the Toilet Exploration Pavilion demonstrates the toilet haves -- and have-nots -- across the globe.
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