The need for the worldwide reduction of emissions has been preached for decades. In the United States particularly, which has only 4
% of the world’s population yet consumes over a third of its energy resources, the situation is growing more and more desperate. As energy consumption increases, little headway has been gained in the two areas most concentrated on improvement: dependence on oil (especially foreign) and development of alternative energy sources. Some may say the problem is one without a solution; society is doomed by the natural increase in population, necessity of private transportation, lack of alternative resources and inadequacy of mass transit systems. Yet the 2006 documentary film, Who Killed the Electric Car?, tells a different story altogether.
% of the world’s population yet consumes over a third of its energy resources, the situation is growing more and more desperate. As energy consumption increases, little headway has been gained in the two areas most concentrated on improvement: dependence on oil (especially foreign) and development of alternative energy sources. Some may say the problem is one without a solution; society is doomed by the natural increase in population, necessity of private transportation, lack of alternative resources and inadequacy of mass transit systems. Yet the 2006 documentary film, Who Killed the Electric Car?, tells a different story altogether..
By the 1990s, the idea of an exhaust-free automobile which ran on electricity wasn’t just a daydream, it was reality. The General Motors EV1 (electric vehicle) model was en route to a market breakthrough, already endorsed by a select number of celebrity owners and noted enviromentalists like Ed Begley Jr. Yet oil conglomerates and car companies, who stood to lose enormous profits if EV1 sales took off, had other plans in mind. Not wanting the emergence of the electric car to hinder their economic protocol, these entities with backing from key bureaucratic offices, effectively succeeded in ending production of the EV1. Any possibility of a functional, gas-free automobile becoming mainstream was subsequently terminated.
By the 1990s, the idea of an exhaust-free automobile which ran on electricity wasn’t just a daydream, it was reality. The General Motors EV1 (electric vehicle) model was en route to a market breakthrough, already endorsed by a select number of celebrity owners and noted enviromentalists like Ed Begley Jr. Yet oil conglomerates and car companies, who stood to lose enormous profits if EV1 sales took off, had other plans in mind. Not wanting the emergence of the electric car to hinder their economic protocol, these entities with backing from key bureaucratic offices, effectively succeeded in ending production of the EV1. Any possibility of a functional, gas-free automobile becoming mainstream was subsequently terminated.
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While the film obviously has an agenda, it provides a solid argument for the great potential that the electric car "had" for reducing the nation's (and the world’s) emissions output, not to mention aiding the environment by preserving biodiversity within ecosystems and reforming personal transportation issues. Aside from the environmental implications, if the movie is viewed from a purely objective angle, the viewer has to be alarmed out how certain things are handled within the system from a sustainable development standpoint.
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