One of the biggest issues I have listened to these past few years has been about going “green” in order to save the planet. The largest change/innovation that has come out is the hybrid vehicle. Although this was a great idea in order to improve the gas mileage of the vehicles it did not do its job in “saving” the planet. Most people do not realize the fact that our planet is heavily polluted during the process of making the batteries that go into the cars. This means there is more pollution in making a hybrid. Thus hybrids are not nearly as friendly to the environment as people think since the whole idea around a hybrid vehicle is running off of battery power instead of solely relying on gas. It is true that hybrids do not pollute nearly as much during the driving portion of its life, but by no means is it truly a green vehicle.
This issue is a major problem for America; our auto industry has been “working” to make vehicles more fuel-efficient and “green” but they failed miserably by making hybrids. For once we just need to follow in the footsteps of Europe and Asia by making small engine vehicles. We need to start making cars that own their own produce more miles per gallon than they do right now. It is pretty obvious the technology is out there since Europe has been doing it for ages. The audience in this argument is going to be the American auto industry, Americans wanting to follow the green movement, and the government. The best way to get the message across is going to be through hard facts. Looking at what Europe has done with their vehicles and regulations about minimum MPG allowed from vehicles is going to get the message that we are seriously lacking. It would also be good to find out what the public opinion is on the subject of hybrid vehicles and what the hybrid movement is doing for our environment in the public’s eyes. Getting their opinion then showing the reality will manage to affect the audience more efficiently.
The other topic I have found very frustrating is somewhat controversial between sexes. At TCU we have a wonderful program called Froggie50. These are students driving around golf carts taking women wherever they need to go after dark. The whole idea is to make sure nobody is walking alone at night to limit the chance of a women being assaulted, robbed, or anything of that sort. I feel this is a great system but it is not complete in my opinion. The major thing lacking is the protection for men. I know plenty of men who have been robbed, attacked, or threatened. Women are not the only ones who can experience problems that Froggie50 is trying to prevent. But for some reason TCU does not recognize or care about protecting the man who are walking across campus alone in the middle of the night who is obviously a potential victim to get robbed. This is an issue that needs to be brought to the administrations attention. The best approach is to get students opinions on the subject and do that by interviews and surveys. By finding out how the students feel about the subject we can build a stronger argument to present to the administration in order to see some change.
1 Comment
November 3, 2009 at 6:17 am
Both ideas are very interesting. I like the first one because it’s a very prevalent topic that many people don’t know enough about.