San Diego Film Analysis

The documentary being examined is National Geographic Channel’s World’s Smart Cities: San Diego, the director/producer information was not available, it was published on June 24, 2015, its length is 46 minutes, and its online link is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LAjznAJe5uQ.

The documentary’s overall premise is on cities that are smart in how they function, whether it be economically or culturally. This film focuses on the city of San Diego. One of the things that makes San Diego a smart city is how it has had a high adoption rate of electric cars. “The city itself has around 10,000 electric cars which helps promote a clean and sustainable environment.” Overall the electric companies that provide the electric charging station are benefiting

a bio-fuel. They are growing it in ponds to use as the bio-fuel. “The first question that a lot of people ask is why are we going to use algae for bio-fuel, and the simplest answer to that is because we already do right now, so 100 percent of the petroleum that we drill and pull out of the ground is algae oil, it’s not melted dinosaurs like everybody thinks.” According to UC San Diego, Stephen Mayfield earned his Ph.D. in molecular genetics at UC Berkley and is currently a professor of biology at UC San Diego. He is also Director for California Center for Algae and Co-director for Food & Fuel for the 21st Century. His argument for algae has some ground in that it is said that removing some algae’s from oceans, ponds, etc. can have positive effects for the ecosystem which in turn would be good for the environment, “ The production of biogas from algae may also play an important role in bioremediation as harmful algal blooms in lakes, ponds, or oceans can result in the production of toxic secondary metabolites that can have drastic effects on these ecosystems, and removing these algae for biogas production can reduce these impacts.”(Jones and Mayfield 349). The use of algae can be a clean fuel source also which would in itself reduce greenhouse emission by the decrease in the amount of natural gas being used. A recent study states, “Microalgae are especially attractive as a source of fuel from an environmental standpoint because they consume carbon dioxide and can be grown on marginal land, using waste or salt water.” (Radakovits et al.