Friday Funnies: GM Greenwashing and How Electric Cars Work

How Electric Cars Work

Image: BMW Electric Vehicle, JohnBullas, flickr

General Motors is putting money into the green revolution trying to push it's influence into classrooms with a GM Education Newsletter. This is the same company whose Volt hybrid car chief, Bob Lutz is a vocal denier of climate change! This is the same company that was one of the worst-run companies Steven Rattner (the Wall street banker turned car czar) had ever seen -- and even though it's been rescued by Uncle Sam (US) its survival still isn't assured. They are apparently sponsoring a conference, classroom activities, and lesson plan units including the global postcard search game! Teachers, don't be fooled! This unit gets a failing grade.

Unfortunately their "instructional material" propaganda includes a slick interactive unit on how the internal combustion engine works, using an SUV as an example, with additional buttons for careers, manufacturing and environment on the page. I think our green lesson plans can do better than that. We suggest looking forward and teaching kids how electric cars work?

Here's a 90 second video that shows how electric cars work! Ahhh, that's better.