Thursday, April 19, 2012

Recycling


               In high school I joined the ecology club and learned a lot about the environment and how to do the things we can to help take care of it. I learned about how to eliminate “vampire power” which is electricity being used when an appliance is plugged in but not being used. I learned about composting, energy saving light bulbs, saving gas, and most importantly recycling. I was taught how easy it is to recycle and how important it was for us to do this. From being in ecology club I’ve become a firm believer in recycling or reusing as much as possible. This being said, watching all the Electric cars being crushed instead of recycled, in the film “Who Killed the Electric Car” made me very upset because I didn’t understand it.
                From watching the movie I learned all about the electric car known as the Ev1 car. It seemed ideal for the environment and if I could I would most definitely drive one myself. They showed people who were leasing these cars, and everyone one of them said they loved it. Not one of them has a bad thing to say. They were fast, convenient, and great for the environment so why they decided to stop selling them and retract all of them doesn’t seem to make sense. What were they going to do with them?
                A General Motors spokesperson is on film saying that all the cars would be recycled which made me feel a tad better about the whole ordeal but they didn’t stick to their word. It was discovered that that all of these cars were being crushed and then shredded instead of the parts being reused or recycled. In the movie, a man even brought us to the junkyard and showed us just exactly how these new cars in mere perfect condition were being shamelessly shredded into a pile of useless metal. Why though? Why wouldn’t they do what they said they were going to and make use out of these cars by recycling them if they couldn’t be driven? I can’t seem to wrap my head around it.
                It seems ironic that one of the main purposes of the invention of this car was that it would be significantly better for the environment than the normal gas powered car but in turn it ended up being worse for the environment. These cars are now just more waste piled on top of the over-abundance of waste we already had.

1 comment:

  1. Brittany,

    "Not one of them has a bad thing to say"

    Ahhhh! The art of composing media. I provide this criticism without actually knowing, but I am sure there are some people who drove these cars that did have problems with them. Remember, anyone composing persuasive anything, even (sometimes especially) in documentaries have an agenda and highlight and omit voices and perspectives in order to accentuate their point(s).

    I think you are missing one old blog, so the challenge I propose to you is to get angry for that last one. I want to hear arguments that sting and bite, criticize and hit hard. Get pissed about something. This is very nice and reflective, but I can see you getting slightly annoyed by what you saw, but I want to see it more than slightly. Give it a shot.

    -Filip

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