The Last Frost

So California has filed a suit against six major automobile manufacturers for creating a public nuisance with their product. They stipulate that cars create greenhouse gases (they do), they lead to the warming of the globe (they play a part), and the manufacturers don't give a shit (they don't). So it's seems like the lawsuit is based in reality to me. Besides, the US is a litigious society and sometimes it's the only way to get things done in our country. Otherwise people get too complacent with their paychecks and just want to chill out and watch Sunday Night Football.

So I whole heartily agree with this suit because if they win, it will force automakers to get off their fat lazy asses and start developing a product that isn't such a pain in the globe. Fuel efficient, eco-friendly, and affordable transportation; is it really too much to ask? It's been a hundred years since anyone's done anything significant with 4 wheeled transportation… the vehicles just got faster, more rounded, and more plentiful. 

So anyway, I'm taking a shot at a fellow blogger so please forgive me, but dude this guy is drunk from the cool-aid and needs to be edumacated. His arguments followed by my response:

1) There is no smoking gun evidence that points to humans as the cause of global warming.

Well dude… you can hide behind this argument and you'll probably be successful because it's a very convenient and subtle red-herring. The argument is good because it admits that the globe is warming. It's a crappy argument because there is a shit-load of evidence supporting human-induced global warming, but what about the natural warming and cooling cycles of the earth… yeah… there's that too. So global warming is induced by human activities as well as natural cycles. Who ever said that these or any other cause of warming act independent of each other? You're busy distracting people with this silly argument, the only goal of which is to place blame on one or the other while a serious problem gets worse. I bet when you fart you point to the guy next to you and blame it on them too.

2) Why is it just the auto-industry that gets blamed? Why not the consumers who buy them? Isn't that like blaming gun companies for crimes committed by gun owners?

Ok, I'll give you break on this one… only half of your argument sucks ass. Your example should have been why not the EPA for not doing it's job making stiff emissions regulations that the industry had to stick to. The truth is that the reason our cars are so inefficient is because it's cheaper to make them that way. Then the auto companies can make the most profit… it's really simple. The auto industry has 100 years of investment in the inefficient internal combustion engine and what reason do they have to change to a new technology? To them it's like throwing money down the toilet. Sure a new super efficient car would probably sell well, but it would be costly to develop so where's the incentive? It doesn't exist yet… the EPA hasn't created one (I think they should remove the 'P' and just be EA), and California is giving them one with this lawsuit. 

You also said, "It seems to me that we have, as a society, chosen to drive vehicles powered by fossil fuels". I don't know when that happened but if there was some sort of vote on this issue I must have missed it. I sure as hell would have voted for a car that runs off of the stupidity of people if I had a choice, cause that sure as hell seems to be a renewable resource.

If there were emission-free cars on the market that actually worked, and if consumers had a real choice between them or gas guzzling globe destroyers, then I could see placing the blame on us. Sure we like our cars cheap and powerful but that's not a justifictation for a company to poison the world in order to give it to us.

3) "While a part of me probably wouldn't mind the state of California suing certain people I've had to take car trips with for causing a public nuisance with their gas emittance". Holy shit you do blame other people when you fart!

4) "California's state government is one of the largest bureaucracies the world has ever seen." … and later … "California's leaders are now turning to ill-advised lawsuits to raise revenue."

Dude… I've been to the DMV in California and I might have to agree with you on that first bit.

But the second bit… come on now… do you really think that CA is going to prop itself up with any money it gets from the auto industry? CA has the 8th largest economy in the world… 1.55 Trillion dollars in 2005. Do you really think this lawsuit is going to make a dent?

Give the… wait what were your words again… oh, "testament to big-government liberalism". Give them the benefit of the doubt, it may get greedy corporations to start thinking about the impact their products have on the world before they unleash them en-masse. 

–

So in all fairness to the auto-industry here, they have provided the world with a wonderful invention that I myself enjoy on a nearly daily basis. I love the car, I don't own one, but I do own a motorcycle with an internal combustion engine in it (the hydrogen fuel-cell model I ordered has been on backorder indefinitely). We really need to cut them some slack though, the science of global warming is still relatively young. Any company that's 70 - 80 years invested in a technology needs time to shift to something new. My point is that now they're over 100 years invested in this technology and haven't shown any significant effort in the last 30 years to shift towards more environmentally friendly vehicles.

If we're lucky this lawsuit may just serve as a "tap on the shoulder" of auto-makers that large goverment powers are paying attention to their lack of motivation. I think it's smart to sue, why? Because government's suck at regulating anything, they can barely even regulate themselves. Though if they can push a company into regulating itself in the right ways, ah… that's when the magic can really happen quickly.

California Suing Automakers Over Greenhouse Gases » [SayAnythingBlog.com]

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This entry was posted on Friday, September 22nd, 2006 at 6:57 pm and is filed under Activism, Alternative Fuels, Climate Change, Latest News, Politics, Rants. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.