Cleaner snowmobiles

US-based company Arctic Cat has come out with a means to combat noise and air pollution caused by snowmobiles in national parks. The company has introduced the 'Yellowstone Special', a snowmobile with a four-stroke engine developed by Suzuki Motors of Japan. This will replace the customary two-stroke model that is currently in use. A report in 1999 by the US National Parks Service had revealed that although snowmobiles form a tiny minority of the vehicles used inside national parks, they were the most responsible for carbon monoxide and hydrocarbon emissions. The company is lending four of the new model vehicles to the Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming for trials ( Tomorrow , Vol 11, No 2).