Who'd be a penguin?!

I just watched 'March of the Penguins', a documentary film about...Emperor Penguins. More precisely, the extraordinary lengths they have to go to in order to maintain their existence. The cinamatography was fantastic; the narration was cheesy. At the time of its release, there was quite a stir, as various interpretations were imposed on it. Some Christian groups heralded it as a prime example of the benefits of the family unit, or as a clear reflection of intelligent design. Some gay groups were keen to point out the existence of homosexual penguin liaisons. Personally, I think that the film was about...penguins.

Specifically, I think if there is any one single message to take home from the film it is this: Emperor Penguins have a pretty raw deal of it. Out of all the life cycles that God/Evolution could have dealt them, theirs is a pretty sucky one. In summary:

• At the age of five, you emerge from the water in which you've been happily swimming, and waddle in a fashion which is pretty inefficient for 70 miles.
• You find a mate, get on with it, and wait for an egg to arrive. Once it does, the female passes it to the male (hopefully without calamity) and then waddles the 70 miles back the the sea to try to regain the third of her biomass lost in egg production.
• The male waits with the egg, until the female returns with dinner for the chick some days/weeks later. He then sets off for the seas, to replace the 50% biomass lost and... to bring back dinner.
• And so the cycle of long distance takeaways continues, through the longest nights, and harshest weather, until eventually things warm up a bit and the sea comes to the penguins. At which point, back off for a swim, and trying to avoid being eaten by seals.

At all of the above stages there seems to be a risk of death by various methods (cracking, freezing, exhaustion, predation, abandonment) which makes you wonder how on earth the population manages to increase by a net amount of more than three birds per year.

So, who'd be a penguin? Not me, for sure. It did remind me, though of Eddie Izzard's sketch about assignation of the various methods of procreation at the dawn of the universe.

Maybe the penguins don't have it so bad after all...

Film Review(ish): Who Killed the Electric Car?

GM Killed The Electric Car
Originally uploaded by vaXzine

Sometimes I wonder if I'm too cynical. Then something will happen that makes me realise I'm not nearly cynical enough.

'Who Killed the Electric Car?' is the tale of the humble EV1, manufactured by General Motors, and first made commercially available in 1996 in California. By 2005 not one was left on the road. Not because they were faulty, or that no-one wanted to drive them. The film sets out to uncover the reason for their untimely demise.

Electric cars actually date back as far as 1890, which was a bit of a surprise to muggins here who associates 'electric vehicles' with milkfloats rather than snazzy little motors. They were even picking up speeding tickets by 1903. They were eventually superseded by the rise of the internal combustion engine, but have ticked along quietly in the background ever since.

So, fast-forward to 1995 when the California Air Resources Board (CARB) introduce a 'Zero Emissions Vehicle (ZEV)' mandate, designed to encourage car manufacturers to increase the market share of zero emissions vehicles over the years to come. General Motors released the EV1 for lease from 1996, and the future of this car seemed rosy.

But meanwhile, there was increasing unrest in the oil industry. Electric vehicles mean you don't have to buy petrol. Yes, they use energy, but the oil chiefs aren't going to have the same stranglehold over privately used vehicles that they had. Plans are hatched, and, lo and behold, CARB's ZEV mandate is relaxed a bit. And then repealed when legal action is threatened. Oh, look, Federal Government's been dragged into the equation. General Motors don't seem desperately upset about the lowered incentives to produce electric vehicles. After all, they've bought the Hummer brand, so they'll probably be able to cope. Hmmm...

Ok, so the oil companies get panicky about the threat to their industry, and throw their weight around to try to damage the reputation of electric vehicles, and to reduce the incentives for their production. So far, no big surprises. What I found quite shocking about the film was the fate of the existing EV1s. They were never actually sold to customers in the first place; they were simply leased. So, around 2004, when happy customers wanted to renew their leases, they were told that it wasn't possible, and that the cars were being recalled. Customers who refused to co-operate had they vehicles towed away. And the fate of the cars? Not to be recycled for parts as one company spokesman claimed. They were taken into the desert and crushed. Enthusiastic drivers managed to track down an enclosure of 78 cars that had yet to be destroyed, and offered $1.9 million to buy them from General Motors. But such was the company's desire to obliterate the cars from the public consciousness, they declined.

Apart from being incredibly wasteful and unnecessarily spiteful, this move struck me as very naive. Did GM really think that destroying the cars would remove awareness of them altogether, so that people would remain unaware of the potential of electric vehicles? Did it not occur to them that web-based campaigns would spring up, and that video footage would be retained and circulated? Or that a DVD might even be made, which I stumbled across, watched, and now you're reading about? Corporate secrecy is increasingly difficult to maintain in the internet age.

So, what now? Who did kill the electric car? The film concludes that a number of parties were implicated; in fact, all but the batteries themselves were declared in some way guilty. But the potential for exploitation of a market niche hasn't disappeared. There is still demand for the vehicles, and an even more significant necessity. As one of the participants said: "The electric vehicle is not for everybody; it can only meet the needs of 90% of the population." Whilst that may be a bit of an exaggeration, but there are certainly a lot of journeys that could be carried out using vehicles of this sort. There are various hopeful lines of development for the future, but I think I've talked enough already.

Watch this film. Or, at the very least, watch the trailer and read around on the website. Have a think about the oil industry. Read about Peak Oil. And use your consumer powers wisely.