SCS 100 Theme 4: Graphic Organizer Exemplar
View this graphic organizer exemplar on the hybrid and electric cars debate as a model of how to approach this activity.
Supporters of [insert the selected issue here]
What group(s) in American society does the perspective appeal
to?
What organizations promote the perspective?
What are the biases in the perspective?
Does the perspective appeal to you? Why or
why not?
What objective evidence is used to
support the perspective?
Electric vehicles People concerned about climate change/global warming, pollution, and natural resource exploitation (oil and gas). These people are usually of a younger demographic (under 40 years of age).
Organizations such as the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) promote the use of electric cars in order to reduce emissions, pollution, and the extraction and use of natural resources for nonelectric vehicles. The makers of electric vehicles would also likely promote the use and sale of these vehicles.
Biases of this perspective would include the assumption that gas-powered vehicles are the sole cause of environmental pollution and that electric vehicles would easily solve or reverse global warming/climate change.
Electric vehicles are most appealing to me because I would personally enjoy using renewable power rather than relying on a non- renewable resource such as gas or oil.
Empirical evidence from the U.N.’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) concluded human- induced climate change is happening and the effects are already evident.
Maintaining gas-fueled cars as primary means of transportation
Car enthusiasts would likely support maintaining gas-fueled cars because very few high-performance cars are electric; most are fueled by gas.
Automotive lobbyists, car manufacturers, and oil producers would promote maintaining gas-fueled cars.
Automotive lobbyists, car manufacturers, and oil producers profit a great deal from the creation and sale of gas- fueled cars as well as the gas that is sold to fuel them.
I have owned a gas- fueled car my whole life and it is expensive to purchase gas for it, so this approach appeals least to me.
A study by Christopher W. Tessum and colleagues (2014) reported a battery- powered car recharged with electricity generated by coal-fired power stations is likely to cause more than three times as many deaths from pollution as a conventional, petrol-driven vehicle.
