The Other Drummer

Who Killed the Electric Car? is an interesting documentary about the rise and fall of the electric car in the 1990′s.

California passed a zero emissions mandate in 1990 requiring automakers to make a certain percentage of their fleets zero emissions by a certain date, due mainly to the horrid and very unhealthy air quality conditions in California.

The General Motors’ EV1 was an electric car that met those standards.

Getting around 100 miles per charge, it was more than adequate for most people’s daily driving needs. “Filling up” the car was done by plugging it in either at home or at a charging station around town.

It cost about a third as much to charge it as it would have to buy a comparable amount of gas and it took about 50 EV1s to create as much pollution as one gasoline powered car.

Then came the opposition. California’s zero emission mandate was repealed after heavy lobbying from automakers, the petroleum industry and the White House. GM took back all the EV1s when their leases expired, despite the begging and pleading from their owners to extend their lease or to even buy the car.

A short while later, 78 EV1s were discovered in a fenced-in parking lot behind a GM office building. EV1 drivers got together, collected money and offered GM a check for $1.9 million to take the cars they were planning on scrapping anyway. GM refused.

There’s a lot more to the documentary, including what GM did and didn’t do to promote the cars, what people had to do to actually lease them (one guy had to wait six weeks despite the fact that the car he wanted was just sitting there on the lot) as well as exploring who the culprits were behind the death of the electric car.

One of the more interesting culprits, they say, is hydrogen. Despite the success and demand for the EV1, automakers, The White House and the oil industry lobbied against it in favor of hydrogen powered vehicles. While that may not sound so terrible, the theory of using hydrogen to power cars is a little like saying you’re going to turn lead into gold. It takes a lot of money and energy to create hydrogen and if it were to ever become wide-spread it would require an entirely new distribution infrastructure. And that’s exactly why automakers, the oil industry and good ol’ boy George W. (aren’t those synonymous?) are promoting it: appear to be trying to do something good when you think it will never take off.

Most of the hour and a half-long movie is interesting and thought-provoking, although there are a couple scenes where environmental activists do things that make me think, “That’s why people don’t take you seriously.” Like having a funeral service for a car. Other than that, it’s definitely worth the cost of the rental.

As I was walking downtown the other day I became acutely aware of the hardness of the cement as the slap of the soles of my shoes jarred my body. This artificial pathway to work lead me to think of the plastic chair I would be sitting in at my desk. My desk is… made of what? I have no idea. Some bizarre plastic composite perhaps?

I would spend my day indoors where natural light is abundant but the air is recycled. Phones and intercoms and the chime of computers notifying their users of new messages and appointments were destined to fill my ears for the next eight to ten hours.

Eight to ten hours. Half of my waking life.

I paused at a crosswalk, a red hand halting my progress as dozens of cars rumbled by making the air difficult to breathe.

Slap, slap, slap. The red hand gave way and I continued on, each step a subtle concussion through my body. So subtle, in fact, they had previously gone unnoticed. How? I walked the same route from the train to the office every day. Yet this particular day I felt strangely disconnected. Or perhaps I was more connected. Sometimes it’s hard to tell the difference.

Token planting pots, often neglected, lined my path. Partially filled with soil, the remainder filled with trash or cigarette butts, the withered inhabitants tried to rise.

Rise.

Slap, slap, slap. My shoes called my attention downward, unwilling to let me forget their constant battle with the cement.

The cement was before me and behind me. It ran to my left into the road and to my right up the buildings. This was the layout that would guide me to the half of my life spent breathing forced air and sitting in a synthetic chair before a desk and glowing screen.

Then my hand did something most peculiar. As if to give my shoes hope, it rose into a tree and ran its fingers through the thick, green leaves on its low-hanging branches. A calm ran through my body clear down to my feet, which instantly slowed to savor the sensation. The cool, pliable leaves grazed over my hand and slid through my fingers. For the first time in a long time, I’d touched something living and organic, energizing my body and bringing life to my soul.

Snapped this shot on my way home from work. If you look at the left side of the picture just above the cement barrier you can clearly see a funnel cloud forming. I took these pictures on 500 South coming out of downtown.

Click the pics for a much bigger images.

If your car is idling, you’re getting zero miles per gallon. Sucks, huh? I quote from Treehugger:

While older cars from the 1970s and early 1980s might have needed time to warm up, the norm since the mid-1980s has been fuel-injection vehicles which can be restarted frequently without engine damage. When you start a car’s engine, a little bit of extra gas is used to get the combustion process started. That means a good rule of thumb for conserving gas is to idle for no more than 30 seconds, except, of course, if you’re just sitting in traffic. If you have a hybrid car, it does the work of avoiding idling for you. While parked or sitting in traffic, hybrids shut off their gasoline engines automatically.

Turn ‘em off folks.

I’ve read the book and just finished watching the movie. I am not a scientist. I have never claimed to be one and frankly don’t have a desire to be one. With that caveat, the evidence he laid out was impressive. He addresses the most common arguments against global warming: it’s part of a natural cycle the Earth goes through, people can’t possibly make such a large impact on the Earth, etc.

The book was much more detailed and persuasive than the movie which is unfortunate because I’m sure of the few people who see the movie, even fewer are going to take the time to read the book. At the very least, see the movie. Read the book if you’ve got the time. (You also won’t have to listen to Al Gore’s subtly Southern twang for an hour and a half.)

As Rob said, it’s a shame a lot of people won’t end up seeing the film because it is perceived as “Al Gore talks about global warming” instead of a well-researched and important film on global warming. Yes, it’s necessary to involve politics in a discussion like this but it could have been toned down a bit.

Be prepared to endure numerous, self-aggrandizing shots of Gore walking out to wild applause and some bashing of the current administration. Get through that and you’ll come away with an important message and a greater sense of urgency about the world you live in and the way you live in it.

The title is perfect. It’s exactly what global warming and other environmental issues are. It’s about time we did something about it.