Going Green: Will it help or hinder us? Recently, the Chevrolet Volt was voted the 2011 Green Car of the Year. "The Chevy Volt is one of the first American-made electric cars to make its way onto consumer radar in quite some time. While the Toyota Prius hybrid has been dominating the Eco market with Honda Civic riding its coattails, the Chevy Volt is approaching things in a slightly different way technologically." Mark Perlman of technobuffulo.com says. The Chevy Volt may be the first American made electric car, but there are still some issues to be worked out with regards to the definition of "Green" and what it will do for this world.
Glenn McCoy of the New York Times illustrates the idea of Green Movement and how it has negatively effected us. In the cartoon, Obama is dressed as the infamous fairy godmother and has granted Cinderella's wish of going to the Ball by turning her carriage into a "Pumpkin". "Great! The Green car you sold me turned into a giant lemon!" Cinderella is yelling at Obama and is giving him grief for the lack of quality in the Green Car or the Chevy Volt. In most of Glenn's McCoy's cartoons, he does not seem to favor Obama tactics and strategies, but this common factor makes it clear that McCoy believes that Obama does not do a good job of keeping his promises. The reason why Obama is dressed as the Fairy Godmother is because in the story of Cinderella, the Fairy Godmother keeps her promises and tells Cinderella that all her dreams and wishes will come to fruition if she goes to the Ball. She cannot simply walk to the Ball so she relies on her Fairy Godmother to give her a good source of transportation. In comparison, many Americans look to people like Obama to give them guidance as to what is the best way to get from point A to point B without using up a plethora of gas or having the car break down due to faulty technology.
McCoy is smart to use the story of Cinderella because everyone is familiar with the outcome. But what if the outcome changed due to terrible advice given by a "wise" Fairy Godmother"? Through this cartoon, McCoy emphasizes that Obama has pushed for Americans to accept the Green ideas and concepts like the Chevy Vault, yet we do not have enough information to prove "going Green" will be affective or helpful to the planet's current state. McCoy uses the strategies like satire and allusion to show that this plan to move towards a greener planet may not have a positive outcome unlike the story of Cinderellla. While the Chevy Vault is a great idea on America's part, it still has some issues that need to be worked out. For example, the battery life. Just like your regular fuel injected engines, the battery in Green mobiles will not last forever and it will need to be replaced more frequently which means more dead batteries will end up in the landfills.
Again, some of the ideas pertaining to the Green movement are great. Recycling is a proven way to maintain the planet without harmful effects. But we still don't know enough about the Green cars to prove that they will help this planet. Hopefully, Obama will see that he needs to back down on the Green plan and focus on bigger issues like the economy and the Jobs Plan.
No comments:
Post a Comment