Blog Post 6 – Metamorphosis
Lucas
1- What challenges did you overcome during this inquiry Project? How did you overcome these challenges?
During my research rounds, I was challenged by many factors of the whole planning, writing, and researching process. One specific issue I had was effectively distributing the information in the 3 blogs to effectively answer my question. As the title being “Will Electric Cars Dominate Gas Cars in the Future?”, I felt like my blogs were emphasizing too much on explaining the electric car instead of looking at whether or not it will replace gas cars in the future. Some questions that I would’ve looked into are the government’s incentives on electric cars, how activists view electric cars, and how businesses involved with gas cars are affected if EVs become more and more popular.
2- How did this inquiry change the way you think?
By researching the topic, my views regarding electric cars and their environmental impacts altered. During research for the EV environmental impact blog, I have come to a realization that it is not as sustainable as I originally thought. I learned that in order to produce the vehicles, the process of mining the Rare Earth Metals for the battery takes a lot of heavy machinery that produces a lot of CO2 emissions during use. A less carbon-intensive way of producing EV batteries is essential to reduce the overall carbon emissions during production. I also became aware of the different ways of electricity generation and the types of renewable energy.
3- How did this investigation affect your future decisions?
As my family is looking for a new car, they have decided on getting a plug-in hybrid or fully electric SUV. Because I learned about electric cars from my research, I was able to tell them the pros and cons of an electric car. For example, electric cars tend to have extra storage than gas vehicles because of their small motor. However, it takes a long time to charge and are less convenient for road trips because of the lack of a charging station and the shorter range that the battery provides.
4- How will this investigation impact others in your community or globally?
From the different aspects discussed in my recent blogs, I hope this could help people to understand what really makes up an electric car and their environmental impacts. As global warming is becoming a bigger problem year by year, it is crucial for people to realize the need to eliminate carbon emissions and transition to a more sustainable source of transportation.