Friday's Featured Film: Wingless Flight

When your goal is a future with healthy oceans, you have to keep a sharp eye on the land. That's because the impact we humans are having on planetary ecosystems don't stop at the shoreline.

With that in mind, and with gasoline prices in my neighborhood soaring toward $4.75 a gallon for regular, I was delighted to discover this small car company that plans to bring a sleek all-electric car with a 120 mile cruising range and a top speed of 85 miles per hour to market before the end of the year.

Called the Aptera and built in Carlsbad, California, it will retail for less than $30,000; carry two passengers, an infant/toddler car seat, and quite a bit of cargo ("15 bags of groceries, two full-size golf club bags or even a couple of seven-foot surfboards"); and is flat-out gorgeous, in a futuristic way.

By 2010 they intend to produce and sell a gas-electric hybrid that gets 120 miles PER GALLON of gas. The only bad news: Initially, it will only be be available here in California.

Check it out in this Popular Mechanics test drive: