Wednesday, June 06, 2007

Caught on Tape: Meeky Rosie - "Forever" (from Who Killed the Electric Car?)

I finally sat down and watched the documentary, Who Killed the Electric Car? last night, and as someone concerned with a variety of environmental issues I have found the topic has really stuck with me. I find it funny that we live in an age where we can watch movies, take photographs, check our email, call our friends, and store 20,000 songs on a device small enough to fit in a pocket, yet we are still driving vehicles that run the same basic way that they have since the turn of the 20th century.

The movie really makes a lot of interesting points regarding the way we, as consumers, are factored in to the whole scheme, and the substantial degree of awareness necessary to demand change for the better. The car that the film is about, the
General Motors EV1, is depicted in a very human way. It is difficult not to feel a little sad, like you're losing a friend when the EV1 is seen being hauled off and destroyed later in the film.

The end credits features a song by British indie band Meeky Rosie, titled "Forever." Mournful, yet holding on to a spirit of hope, the track's ruminative atmospherics accompany the mood of the film nicely. The music video from the film's special features section pairs the group's original concept video with clips and quotes taken from the documentary.



While the need for alternative fuel sources is becoming widely acknowledged as the prices climb at the pumps, we are still relying too heavily on oil. Besides the environmental and health problems surfacing in relation to gas engines, the use of oil increases our foreign dependency. At the end of the day, most people just want to do their jobs and provide for their families, but it is backwards thinking to believe we are making things easier on our future generations by slowly sucking our non-reusable resources dry.

It wasn't until the last hundred years that mankind has even been capable of travelling so quickly and extensively. Now that we have adopted a lifestyle on the go, it seems crucial that we develop and promote alternative technologies before we are left without the choice.

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