Who Killed the Electric Car Analysis

IN 1996, galvanising machine automobile autoS BEGAN TO APPEAR ON ROADS tot completelyy OVER CALIFORNIA. THEY WERE QUIET AND FAST, PRODUCED NO EXHAUST AND RAN WITHOUT GASOLINE. TEN YEARS LATER, THESE CARS WERE DESTROYED. teacherS GUIDE A QUIETLY SHOCKING INDICTMENT OF OUR GAS-GUZZLING simple machine COMPANIES AND THE PETRO-POLITICIANS WHO LOVE THEM. KAREN DURBIN, ELLE MAGAZINE SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL 2006 TRIBECA FILM FESTIVAL 2006 WHO KILLED THE ELECTRIC CAR? NOTE TO THE TEACHER Who Killed the galvanic cable car? is a muscular tool pertinent to many academic disciplines and adapt adequate to a regeneration of abilities, learning styles, and schoolroom goals.This rich, self-contained germinate requires little or no additional look for on the part of the instructor or the class, save t oilet be used as the foundation for independent educatee research. The film divides neatly into two near equal and independent segments that can be shown on successive days or at diver se points in a unit. Both segments offer excellent hash oution opportunities. The classroom experience of students taking courses on environmental science or offerings that complicate a unit on air quality or environmental concerns would be enriched by pecking Who Killed the electric cable auto gondola?.Courses that encourage enkindle in engineering and practical math applications would also benefit. The ethical and polite questions that the film explores offer a natural connection for teachers working in the area of civics, organisation, ethics, and melodic line ethics. In many of these courses the film could be handle as a case study. The ethical questions raised are nearly unlimited and a large variety of higher-level-thinking activities can be substantial from the film. Included in this packet are discussion prompts, class activities, and research suggestions. 1 FILM SUMMARY acknowledged, the General Motors electric vehicle is eatured. As this segment concludes, th e success of the industrys heavy strategy is symbolized by a celebrity-studded funeral for the electric car. This segment is filled with factual analysis that examines impertinent claims about emissions, practicality, costs of various fuels, and consumer demand. Who Killed the Electric Car? is presented as a whodone-it mystery. Staying true to this genre, the film opens with necessary background information, describes the crime committed, answering all of the what, where, and when questions, and because in the style of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle gathers the funnys for lose scrutiny, coming to a expiry on the guilt or innocence of each. The second half of Who Killed the Electric Car? is Sherlock Holmes at his best. The seven suspects identified in the first half of the film are scrutinized. One by one, consumers, batteries, oil companies, auto manufacturers, the U. S. government, the atomic number 20 Air Resources Board, and the newest villain, the enthalpy car, pass under the bar e medulla oblongata in the inspectors interrogation room in an take in charge to answer the question asked in the films title Who Killed the Electric Car? At the end of each segment the featured suspect is judged as guilty or innocent.Opening with a bit of automotive account that establishes the electric car as a competitive alternative to the inbred burn engine, Who Killed the Electric Car? takes the viewer back to the beginning of the ordinal century and the dawn of the automotive age. A straightforward expla nation of wherefore sportoline beats out electricity as the fuel of superior and how the internal combustion engine wins dominance concludes the broad overview. The film because moves to the recent past with the introduction of the California Air Resources Board and their 1990 conclusiveness to require that ten percent of all ars sell in California by each car manufacturer be zero-emission vehicles by the family 2003. The Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde response of automo tive companies is revealed production and marketing of zero-emission cars is detailed, a period during which the legal and political teams of the same manufacturers work to defeat the law that gave birth to redbrick electric vehicles. plot of land several manufacturers are The film ends on a positive note, recognizing a grassroots movement that envisions cleaner air and skill independence. In a John Kennedy-style appeal, the film claims that those who mould our energy onundrum provide be those that change the world. 2 SELECTED SCENES FOR CLASSROOM REVIEW 119 1940 Two million new cars are sold in Television advertisement for G. M. s California each year. electric car. 255 2121 Cheap oil supports the combustion Introduce Dr. Alan Lloyd of C. A. R. B. engine over the electric car. 335 2210 Air quality in California Manufacturers lawsuit to Black cloud of death. overturn emissions standards. 432 2230 Each gallon of gasoline burned yields President provide endorsing atomic numb er 1 19 pounds of carbon dioxide. technology in the State of the Union. 455 2243 Introduce S.David Freeman. heat content Hummer and the atomic number 1 highway. 740 2320 Creating demand for electric cars. C. A. R. B. auditory modality on the emissions standards. 850 2530 C. A. R. B. and Californias C. A. R. B. vote to kill the standards. zero-emission policy. 1240 2615 be to run an electric car equals Manufacturers start to collect gasoline when gas is 60 cents per gallon. the electric cars. 1410 2735 Californians Against inferior Save the electric car campaign, Company Abuse including the mock funeral. 1610 2930 G. M. claims to pay built electric cars farthest EV1 collected. according to demand. 1910 3120Marketing How far, how fast, EV1s in a G. M. lot. how frequently? 3 3320 5036 G. M. spokesperson apologizes the pretend Car Manufacturers fate of the collected EV1s. 3530 5620 PBS at the car crusher. Suspect Government 3658 10357 S. David Freeman, Were up against Suspect C. A. R. B. or so of the gold in the world. 3715 10702 Vigil for the EV1s. Suspect Hydrogen Fuel Cell 3840 11108 Would you misdirect one of these electric President Bush at a hydrogen cars? Display check for 1. 9 million filling station. dollars offered to G. M. 3920 11505 Who controls the future? Last cars moved. He who has the biggest club. 11852 3934 1 Scene from Naked gunslinger 2 /2 Automotive Museum The Smell of Fear. 4025 12030 List of suspects. Verdicts. 4058 12232 Suspect Consumers The fight about the electric car was preferably simply a fight about the future. 4320 12358 Suspect Batteries Introduce James Woolsey and Plug In America. 12719 4638 The one assemblying of people that steps Suspect Oil Companies up to take it on is the group that will change the world. 4 DISCUSSION PROMPTS These prompts can be used for full-class discussion, small group conversations, or adapted for use as writing assignments of varying length and detail. What compromises related to car s and transportation are you volition to muddle to pre serving and improve air quality? Brainstorm possibilities and then discuss each one, focusing on the average consumer. What one affirmation in the film do you disagree with? why? What one assumption in the film troubles you the most? Why? In your own words, explain why the car manufacturers collected and destroyed the electric vehicles. Did government serve the people in the case of electric cars? Why? Does government have the right to tell companies what to manufacture? Why? How important an issue is our nations dependence on oil?Explain. Do you agree that those who solve the energy question will change the world? Explain. Should the world oil supply be divided evenly according to population, given to those able to pay the highest price, or reserved for developing nations? Explain your opinion. Is it acceptable for a nation to use oil as a weapon? Why/why not? Would you characterize each of the following as a good citizen or a bad citizen? Why? -The oil companies -The automobile companies -U. S. consumers -Scientists researching hydrogen fuel -The citizens trying to save the electric car Is energy a national security issue?Why/how? Explain. How is the use of hydrogen as a fuel related to the reemergence of nuclear power? Does bore for more oil in the pristine wilderness make good sense? Why/why not? Given the information provided in the film, do you believe electric cars are a reasonable alternative to combustion engines? Why/why not? Given the information provided in the film, do you believe you will be able to buy a hydrogen-powered car in the next 10 geezerhood? 20 years? ever so? Why/why not? 5 MOCK COURT shoot defense and criminal prosecution teams for each of the seven defendants identified in the film.Have the teams sterilize for a mock trial using the information in the film and if desired, additional research. Stage a trial with a jury that has not seen the film. Roles Ju dge Acts as presiding officer maintaining order, resolving conflicts, and charging the jury. Prosecution team Presents register against the named defendant using witnesses, charts, graphs, and corporeal evidence. The team would also cross-examine defense witnesses. The prosecutions job is to prove beyond a reasonable interrogative sentence the guilt of the defendant. Defense team Presents evidence that rebuts the prosecutions view and may suggest alternative perpetrators.The defense may use witnesses, charts, graphs, and physical evidence. The team would also cross-examine prosecution witnesses. The defenses job is to fabricate reasonable doubt as to the guilt of the defendant. This activity can be used as an alternative assessment of student knowledge firearm also building detailed thinking and oral presentation skills. 6 COMMON GOOD Open the activity by reading the dissever below. Allow for a few minutes of general comment on the concept of the plebeian good and the claim by then G. M. chair Charles E. Wilson Whats good for the sylvan is good for General Motors and vice versa.The introduce to the United States Constitution opens with the words We the People of the United States, in wander to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure internal Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America. These words imply a common interest that is shared by citizens and government, a concept very much referred to as the common good. In 1953, the then president of General Motors, Charles E.Wilson, was nominative by President Dwight Eisenhower to serve as his Secretary of Defense. During Wilsons bank check hearings, senators were concerned that he would have difficulty making a end that could hurt General Motors, a major defense contractor, even if the close was in the best inter est of the United States. When asked this question, Wilson assured senators that he could make such a decision but that he could not mean such a situation, because for years I thought what was good for the country was good for General Motors and vice versa. Student instructionWho Killed the Electric Car? implies that the common good is not being served by the decision to abandon electric vehicles and embrace hydrogen technology. Write your own definition of the common good. agnise groups of 3 to 5 and share these definitions. Try to agree on a group definition. Evaluate General Motors decision to kill the electric car program in light of your groups definition. Be lay down to report your findings to the class. Do Mr. Wilsons thoughts from 1953 reflect the General Motors Corporation that is presented in the film? If the Senate called the current president of G.M. to explain the death of the electric car, intend what he might say that would be quoted more than 50 years later. 7 HIDDEN AGENDA Teacher introduction As a class, brainstorm about the term hidden docket. When you get all the ideas on the board, make groups of 3 to 5. In groups, have the class discuss the ideas on the board and then write a definition of hidden agenda that the group can agree on. As a class, share these definitions and require one working definition for the whole class. Have students return to their groups and discuss what hidden agenda(s) the following may have had.To make a claim, the group must have at least one piece of hard evidence from the film. Each group should decide which three of their claims are the strongest and install to present them to the class. Present and discuss Automobile companies dark agenda _____________________________________________________________________________________ take the stand Oil companies Hidden agenda _____________________________________________________________________________________ raise Filmmakers Hidden agenda ________________ _____________________________________________________________________ turn upCar companies Hidden agenda _____________________________________________________________________________________ recite Federal government Hidden agenda _____________________________________________________________________________________ Evidence Fans of the electric car Hidden agenda _____________________________________________________________________________________ Evidence C. A. R. B. Hidden agenda _____________________________________________________________________________________ Evidence 8 WHAT IS THE ROLE OF BUSINESS? What is the component part of blood in a democratic/capitalist nightclub?The interlocking interaction surrounded by business, government, and consumers is presented as a case study in Who Killed the Electric Car?. After viewing the film, clarify your own posture toward the grapheme of business, onwards any discussion, by using the prompts that follow. Prioritize the good list from 1, most important, to 10, least important, and then write on the dot a sentence or two that explains each ranking. Using your results, make groups that include individuals with different attitudes. While you discuss the movie, analyze how different views of business exercise opinions about the film. ______ The occasion of business is to make a profit. _____ The affair of business is to make a good product. ______ The place of business is to serve the consumer. ______ The role of business is to support government. ______ The role of business is to educate government. ______ The role of business is to educate consumers. ______ The role of business is to improve life. ______ The role of business is to shelter the environment. ______ The role of business is to provide consumers with choice. ______ The role of business is to invent solutions to societys problems. 9 WHAT IS THE ROLE OF GOVERNMENT? What is the role of government in a democratic/capitalist society?The compl ex interaction between business, government, and citizens is presented as a case study in Who Killed the Electric Car?. After viewing the film, clarify your own attitude toward the role of government, before any discussion, by using the prompts that follow. Prioritize the entire list from 1, most important, to 10, least important, and then write just a sentence or two that explains each ranking. Using your results, make groups that include individuals with different attitudes. While you discuss the movie, analyze how different views of government influence opinions about the film. ______The role of government is to defend the nation. ______ The role of government is to create a just society. ______ The role of government is to protect the consumer. ______ The role of government is to protect business. ______ The role of government is to regulate business. ______ The role of government is to educate consumers. ______ The role of government is to improve life for all citizens. ______ The role of government is to protect the environment. ______ The role of government is to provide consumers with choice. ______ The role of government is to invent solutions to societys problems. 10 MAKING THE CASEIn the second half of Who Killed the Electric Car? , each of the suspects in this mystery is held up to scrutiny. Acting as an sincere detective, develop a list of the evidence offered for guilt and the evidence that indicates innocence. In groups or as a class, use these evidence lists as the stem for a debate that leads to a vote on each suspect. The suspect___________________________________________________ Evidence to convict Evidence to acquit 11 BRIAN DANIELS teaches history and ethics at Hudson lofty School, Hudson, Massachusetts. He is the school facilitator for the democratic school initiative atHudson High and an active member of the schools First Amendment Schools team. He has been commandment for thirty years and holds bachelors degrees in history and psych ological science from Boston College and a masters degree in critical and creative thinking from the University of Massachusetts at Boston. He will move the Curriculum Director for English and Social Studies grades 6-12 in the Hudson school district in the summer of 2006. He has been published several times in the Boston Globe and has an article slated for publication in October of 2006 in the subject area Social StudiesSupervisors Association magazine. A SONY PICTURES CLASSICS RELEASE ELECTRIC ENTERTAINMENT PRESENTS A DEAN DEVLIN/PLINYMINOR PRODUCTION A FILM BY CHRIS PAINE WHO KILLED THE ELECTRIC CAR? NARRATED BY MARTIN SHEEN EDITED BY MICHAEL KOVALENKO CHRIS A. PETERSON DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY THADDEUS WADLEIGH authentic MUSIC BY MICHAEL BROOK CONSULTING PRODUCER ALEX GIBNEY EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS DEAN DEVLIN TAVIN MARIN TITUS RICHARD D. TITUS PRODUCED BY JESSIE DEETER WRITTEN AND DIRECTED BY CHRIS PAINE FOR BRIEF MILD LANGUAGE. WWW. WHOKILLEDTHEELECTRICCARMOVIE. COM WWW. SONYCL ASSICS. COM